BEIJING
\nChina and Russia stood by Iran on Friday after the United States demanded nuclear talks with Tehran, with senior Chinese and Russian diplomats saying dialogue should only resume based on \u201cmutual respect\u201d and all sanctions ought to be lifted.
\nIn a joint statement issued after talks with Iran in Beijing, China and Russia also said they welcomed Iran\u2019s reiteration that its nuclear programme was exclusively for peaceful purposes, and that Tehran\u2019s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy should be \u201cfully\u201d respected.
\nIn 2015, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions in a deal with the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. But in 2018, Donald Trump, a year into his first term as US president, pulled out of the pact.
\n\u201c(China, Russia and Iran) emphasised that the relevant parties should be committed to addressing the root cause of the current situation and abandoning sanction, pressure or threat of force,\u201d China\u2019s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu told reporters after the meeting.
\nChina, Russia and Iran also emphasised the necessity of terminating all \u201cunlawful\u201d unilateral sanctions, Ma said.
\nMa\u2019s meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Iran\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi came days after Tehran spurned US \u201corders\u201d to resume dialogue over the nuclear programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING China and Russia stood by Iran on Friday after the United States demanded nuclear talks with Tehran, with senior Chinese and Russian diplomats saying dialogue should only resume based on \u201cmutual respect\u201d and all sanctions ought to be lifted. In a joint statement issued after talks with Iran in Beijing, China and Russia also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-467278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n