Sanaei made the remark in a national conference on multilateralism in Iran’s foreign policy on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, the previous round of sanctions left an adverse impact on the economic ties between Iran and Russia, to the point where our banking and trade ties were nearly paralyzed,” the Iranian ambassador noted.
He went on to add, however, that “currently, we are making efforts to revitalize our economic relations, and we believe that the new round of US sanctions will not have a serious impact on the two countries’ relations.”
He said Russians have not abandoned any serious project in their interactions with Iran.
“Russia is our partner, and I don’t think the positions of any country in the region are as close to Iran as those of Russia,” Sanaei said. “I also think that the Russians have the same opinion that Iran’s positions in the international and regional arenas are the closet to them, although the two countries have their own particular views on certain issues."
Sanaei further noted that in the past five years, Iranian and Russian presidents had met and held talks for some 16 times, and Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif had visited Russia and held talks with the country’s officials for over 20 times in the same period.
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