GENEVA, July 17. /TASS/. Russia condemns US attempts to create difficulties for Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in obtaining a visa, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday after Russian-US consultations on strategic stability.

"We assess such practice rather negatively. Unfortunately, Americans use it toward representatives of several countries, whose governments are not favored by Washington for this or that reason," Ryabkov said commenting on reports that the US may have denied Zarif a visa. "In case with Iran, we see a case of political harassment," he added.

"I think that Iranian colleagues consider this, on the one hand, as inevitable, but on the other hand, as a price to pay for independence of their foreign policy," he noted.