(Newswire.net — July 14, 2015) — Russia expects the US to abandon Anti-ballistic Missile Defense (AMD) plans after Iran signed an agreement Tuesday morning, Russia Today quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“We all probably remember that in April 2009 in Prague [US] President [Barack] Obama said that if the Iran nuclear program issue is sorted out, then the task of creating the European segment of the missile defense system will disappear,” Lavrov said at press conference in Vienna.
According to Lavrov, the Russian inspectors will join the IAEA to control the fulfillment of the deal. In addition, a special commission will be created, which will review “all problems and concerns of the sides over how the other parties to the agreement fulfill their liabilities.”
Officially, embargo on arms will remain for five more years. However, weapons supplies will be possible if Tehran passes verification procedures via the UNSC, Lavrov revealed.
“The compromise has been reached between Iranians and Western colleagues – which we [Russia] and China supported taking into account that Iran agreed on it – five years, but during this period arms supplies to Iran will be possible if they pass the corresponding procedure of verification via the UN Security Council,” said Lavrov.
The hardest critiques of the deal came from Israel, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deal a “bad mistake of historic proportions,” adding that it would enable Iran to “continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region.”
According to Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, Tel Aviv is going to try to bring down the deal by heavily lobbing US legislators not to confirm the agreement.
“The implications of this agreement for the foreseeable future are very grave,” Hotovely said. “The state of Israel will employ all diplomatic means to prevent the confirmation of the agreement,” she added.
US Secretary of state John Kerry, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini along with other officials, met Monday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna to bring an end to decades of tense condition between Iran and the Western countries.
After 18 hours of intense and “often fractious negotiation“, they reached an agreement.