Tehran welcomes Russia's efforts to replace the threat and pressure approach towards the country's nuclear program with diplomatic solutions, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Press TV reported.
"The point, however, in regard with the issue of our country's peaceful nuclear programs is that we have taken big steps towards confidence-building but we believe that confidence-building is a mutual move," Mehmanparast told.
He added that the Islamic Republic is waiting for the other party of negotiations - the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany) - to take the next step regarding confidence-building.
The spokesperson also pointed out that in the near future, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi plans to pay a visit to Russia upon the invitation of his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Talks between the Iranian and Russian foreign ministers would include discussing regional developments, ways to strengthen bilateral ties and Russia's recent offer about Iran's nuclear program.
On July 14, Lavrov laid out a new "step-by-step" approach that would enable Iran to take steps to address questions raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding Tehran's nuclear program.
According to the plan, Iran can revive negotiations to alleviate individual concerns of the IAEA about its nuclear activities and be rewarded along the way by a partial removal of sanctions.
The approach would start out with the easiest questions and move onto more complicated ones that would require a longer time to respond to, according to the Russian official.