Russia's Lavrov says U.S. attitude toward Iran "discriminatory, biased"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov slammed the United States' biased approach to Iran, claiming that the Islamic Republic is not the only country to pursue a ballistic missiles program, IRNA reports.

"There are other countries in the region with such programs. We must look at it as a whole. It is hardly justified to mix nuclear affairs with human rights and put the issue on the agenda, making Iran stop taking certain steps in the region… to my mind, a frankly discriminatory, biased and unjustifiably captious approach can be seen behind these U.S. actions," Lavrov said.

Elsewhere in his remarks the Russian FM said the nuclear deal officially known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is “effective.”

"Americans have a proverb which says 'if it is not broken, do not repair.' This agreement is in fact not at all 'broken' and it is very effective. But they try to 'fix it,' trying to break it first. This is bad," Lavrov stressed.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who had said his administration would decertify the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, decided on Jan 12 to extend the sanctions against the country for the third time as a part of the landmark deal officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

He claimed that this is the 'last time' that he certified the JCPOA unless the amendments that he had mentioned earlier be included to the landmark nuclear deal.

Since Trump announced his decision on Iran deal, many European and American officials have expressed support of the deal.