Qatar’s foreign minister was to visit Moscow on Sunday for discussions on the Iran nuclear talks and Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, a source familiar with the trip said.
The source said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, whose gas producing country is a US ally, would meet with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Reuters reported.
Eleven month-old talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have hit roadblocks after “external factors” and several unresolved issues forced world powers to pause negotiations despite having a largely completed text.
Russia recently said it wants guarantees that its trade with Iran will not be affected by sanctions imposed on Moscow over its assault on Ukraine, a demand Western powers say is unacceptable and Washington has insisted it will not agree to.
Sheikh Mohammed on Saturday discussed the nuclear talks in separate phone calls with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a tweet.
The talks in Vienna seek to bring Tehran’s nuclear program back into compliance with the pact’s restrictions and bring the United States back into the accord it left in 2018 under former president Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Qatar’s ruling emir met with Bektum Rostam, a special envoy for Ukraine’s president, to discuss diplomatic efforts to end the war, Qatar’s state news agency reported.
