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QUESTION: The Japanese Government deposited $450 million for the purchase of oil to the Central Bank of Iran this week.
MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: And Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif was visiting Tokyo, welcoming renewed trade ties. Do you have any concerns with that? Is that --
MS. PSAKI: There’s zero connection.
QUESTION: Zero connection?
MS. PSAKI: This is implementation of the JPOA. There are certain deadlines that are available, I think, on the White House website. There was an installment on March 1st confirming that Iran has completed dilution of half of the stockpile of near 20 percent. There was another installment today, March 7th, which is the second tranche, which is kind of a separate part of the installment plan.
QUESTION: Okay. Yeah.
QUESTION: Was that your question?
QUESTION: Well, my question was --
MS. PSAKI: He was asking about the March 1st money and whether there was a connection with Japan in terms of his visit.
QUESTION: Well, no, he was asking about Japan putting money – buying Iranian oil.
QUESTION: Yeah, well the 450 --
QUESTION: Isn’t that what you were asking?
MS. PSAKI: No, he asked about the 450, which is --
QUESTION: All right.
MS. PSAKI: -- part of the installment plan. There’s – we’re not, obviously, going to get into the details of the mechanisms, although you’ve seen some of them publicly --
QUESTION: Okay. Right.
MS. PSAKI: -- but it was part of the agreed-to payment with reaching the half of the 20 percent dilution. And there was also another payment separately today.
QUESTION: Okay. The second question I have is, in terms of Russia, do you have concerns or fears that sanctioning of Russia will in some way or another affect – for its invasion of the Ukraine – its part in the unified front against Iran --
MS. PSAKI: Iran?
QUESTION: -- (inaudible) to the P5+1? And if I could just elaborate on that, you have said multiple times that the unity of the P5+1 is a top priority for you.
MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: And obviously, you’ve told Congress that anything that may fray that unity is something that you’d like to avoid, so --
MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm. We do not. We don’t agree with Russia on every issue. We don’t agree with China on every issue. We don’t agree with a range of countries on every issue. But Russia is not a part of this in supporting it because they’re doing it as a favor to the United States. They also have been – have publicly spoken about their concerns about Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon. And so we fully expect, and evidence of the last week shows you this, that they will remain an active partner at the negotiating table.
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