Iran ready to abolish visa for Russians: Foreign Minister

TEHRAN: Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Thursday Tehran is ready to abolish visas for Russians and added that the first step could be a visa-free regime for business trips. Iran's top diplomat met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Tehran on Thursday.

"We have good relations on the issue of full liberalization of visas, we discussed this issue. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, we express our full readiness to announce the abolition of visas on a reciprocal basis and take the necessary steps. The first step is to completely abolish visa requirements for businessmen, we also discussed this issue. Our experts will soon finalize these issues," Amir-Abdollahian told a press conference. This comes as Lavrov met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi shortly after arriving in Tehran on an official visit.

During his two-day trip at the invitation of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Lavrov is scheduled to meet senior Iranian officials to discuss the Iran nuclear deal, Xinhua news agency reported. Iranian state media said they will also discuss issues concerning Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan, trade and energy cooperation, as well as expansion of cooperation between Tehran and the regions of Eurasia and Caucasus.

Both Iran and Russia are under US sanctions, which have limited their ability to send their huge energy reserves to global markets. The two countries described their relations as strategic. Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with the world powers in July 2015 accepting to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on Tehran.

However, former President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed Washington's unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting Iran to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the agreement in retaliation. Since April last year, several rounds of talks have been held in Vienna between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties to revive the deal.

Iran insists on obtaining guarantees that the succeeding US governments would not drop the deal again, and calls for lifting the sanctions in a verifiable manner.