As the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Moscow, he told Russian reporters: “The Russian government has stood with the Islamic Republic in hard times, and we will definitely treat our friends in hard times differently."

On his 26th official visit to Moscow in the past six years, Zarif stated that “it is important to inform our Russian friends about the latest developments of the negotiations in France,” adding that he has already informed the “Chinese friends” on these developments.

The two countries of China and Russia which Zarif refers to as the friends of the Islamic Republic are members of the UN Security Council, and both voted for the UN sanctions on the Islamic Republic before the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The Russian foreign ministry at the same time announced that during the meeting between the foreign minister of Iran and Russia, “the main international topics of discussion between two sides will be the JCPOA, the conditions in the Persian Gulf, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen.”

Zarif’s visit to Moscow comes at just over a week before Iran’s deadline for scaling down compliance with its commitments to the deal for the third time.

Zarif emphasized that “Tehran and Moscow have a strategic relationship and Russia has always stood by Iran during hard times, and besides being neighbors, the policies of the leaders of the two countries have created a new relationship between Iran and Russia.”

After visiting and intense negotiations in Scandinavian countries and France, the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic last week visited China, Japan, and Malaysia for negotiations.