The Board of Directors of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) on Monday, May 16 agreed to begin consultations on a temporary agreement on a free trade area (FTA) with Iran, a senior EEC official told reporters, according to Interfax.

According to Minister of Trade Veronika Nikishina, a formal mandate to negotiate, approved by the Presidents of member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), hasn't been received yet. Informal consultations will be held for now, the results of which will be reported to heads of state in October this year.

She said the EEU wouldn't like to limit the work to exclusively analysys, so informal consultations were decided to be held. The Iranian side's stance will be analyzed too.