ArmInfo. At the initiative of the Iranian side, a telephone conversation took place on April 5 between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry press service, the Russian side expressed hope for the success of efforts undertaken by a number of countries to de-escalate tensions around Iran in the interests of a long- term and sustainable normalization of the situation in the Middle East, which would be facilitated by the US abandoning the language of ultimatums and returning the situation to the negotiating track.
The ministers called for avoiding actions, including in the UN Security Council, that could undermine the remaining chances of advancing political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis. The need to immediately stop reckless and illegal attacks on civilian, industrial, and energy infrastructure, including the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), which is under IAEA safeguards, was emphasized. The unacceptability of creating threats to the lives and health of its personnel and the risk of a radioactive catastrophe for the entire region was emphasized.
Lavrov expressed condolences over the death of one of the plant's Iranian employees.
It should be noted that the day before, Rosatom State Corporation CEO Alexey Likhachev, speaking to journalists, expressed hope that Russian employees evacuated from the Bushehr NPP would arrive in Armenia by the night of April 6. He reported that the main wave of evacuation, 198 people, was successfully moving toward the Armenian-Iranian border. He added that only volunteers would remain on the Russian side of the Iranian NPP due to the current threats.
