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Putin eases ban on nuclear cooperation with Iran

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum is sometimes referred to as the “Gas OPEC”, because it brings together the leaders of natural gas exporting countries.

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Putin, whose comments were published on his official website, also said: “We will continue mutually beneficial cooperation in nuclear energy”.

“I invite the leaders of the countries in this group to partner with Iran and invest in developing Iran’s gas resources for mutual benefit”, he said. Russia’s willingness to provide state credit of $ 5 billion and $ 2 billion from Vnesheconombank is a very serious move, because now Iran’s economy is in a hard position.

Speaking at a news conference in Tehran during a gathering of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, Putin also chided the West, saying, “No one outside Syria can and should impose on its people some form of government and who personally must govern it. This should only be decided by the Syrian people”. According to the Russian leader, the sides have selected 35 priority projects in the areas of energy, construction, terminals, railways.

On Monday Putin relaxed an export ban on nuclear equipment and technology to Iran.

He said they emphasized that Moscow and Tehran are united in the view that “attempts to dictate scenarios of political settlement in Syria from the outside” are “impermissible”.

In addition to fighting the Islamic State and supporting the Assad regime militarily, Russian Federation seems intent on showcasing its new-found military strength for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation eyes as well.

Russian Federation had one month earlier launched a wave of airstrikes in support of Assad, whose Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, has close ties to Iran, the Middle East’s main Shiite power.

Iran insists that all its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes, a claim that Russian Federation says it believes.

Russian Federation and Iran signed a contract for Moscow to supply Tehran with S-300 surface-to-air missile systems on November 9.

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But Moscow s aim of an worldwide coalition made up of Iran, Jordan and other regional and Western countries against IS is coming up against deadlock over Assad s future, which recent peace talks in Vienna failed to break. Some analysts have concluded from the slow progress of the transfer that Russia has been making an effort to forestall a lawsuit while keeping the issue alive as a potential source of leverage over both Iran and the West. Such speculation contributes to the notion that certain Russian policies may still be able to be turned against Iran’s interests. Under it, global sanctions against Iran will be lifted in exchange for limits on the country’s uranium-enrichment program. “It is not accidental that the United States has prolonged its 30-year-long anti-Iranian sanctions, including the freeze of all Iranian assets in the USA banks and their foreign divisions, outlawed export from the U.S. to Iran and embargoed the import of any goods from Iran to the United States”, Akhmetov said.

Putin eases ban on nuclear cooperation with Iran