MOSCOW
Russia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the current chair and the secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) are scheduled to arrive in Moscow on Friday.
Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, who currently chairs the OSCE, as well as the organization’s Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu, will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“The agenda of the negotiations will include ways to overcome the current deep crisis of the OSCE, which resulted from the destructive policy of the West, which usurped the resources of the organization to serve the narrow bloc tasks of the EU and NATO,” she said.
Zakharova said that “as a result, the Vienna platform ceased to work in the interests of all its member states,” adding that some countries “began to use it against Russia.”
"A meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, and representatives of the media is scheduled following this round of negotiations," she said.
Turning to the US-Iran tensions, Zakharova said Moscow hopes that the negotiations between representatives of the two countries scheduled for Friday will lead to de-escalation.
“We have always been and remain committed to finding solutions exclusively through political and diplomatic means,” she said. “In particular, we hope that during the planned meeting on Friday, Feb. 7, between senior representatives of Iran and the US, steps will be taken to resolve the current situation and avoid further escalation.”
“We are convinced that pressure on Iran will not only fail to contribute to a settlement but may also lead to tensions throughout the Middle East. We hope that this can be avoided,” she added.
According to US media reports, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to meet in Istanbul on Friday to discuss Tehran’s nuclear program and other outstanding issues.
In 2025, five rounds of negotiations between the United States and Iran on the nuclear issue ended without results and were followed by an Israeli military operation against Iran and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June last year.