Russia on Thursday accused the United States and the Israeli occupation state of attempting to drag Arab countries into a broader conflict in the Middle East by provoking Iran and pushing it to launch strikes against targets across the region.
In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Washington and Tel Aviv had “deliberately provoked Iran into carrying out retaliatory strikes against targets in several Arab countries, resulting in human and material losses, which Russia deeply regrets.”
The statement, reported by Reuters, added that the United States and the Israeli occupation state are “attempting to drag the Arabs into a war that serves the interests of others.”
The Russian foreign ministry stressed that the only way to prevent further destabilisation in the Middle East is to halt what it described as American and Israeli “aggression”. It noted that there are currently no indications that the two “aggressor” states intend to stop their strikes.
Lavrov Warns of Global Consequences
In the same context, the Russian news channel RT quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warning that the current crisis surrounding Iran could have serious consequences for global stability and the world economy.
Speaking during a roundtable meeting at the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow on Thursday, Lavrov said that the aggression of the United States and Israel against Iran is “fraught with enormous negative consequences for the entire world, for global stability, for the global economy, and for everything previously known as globalisation, as well as for the prosperity of humanity as a whole. All of this has been destroyed, while civilians are the ones who suffer.”
Lavrov added that Russia extends its condolences to any civilian victims resulting from the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
He also noted that debates are taking place within the United States itself regarding the true objectives behind the operation against Iran.
“I have no doubt that one of the goals was to sow discord among the countries of the region, between Iran and its Arab neighbours,” Lavrov said, noting that relations between the two sides had experienced a positive normalisation process in recent years until recently.
The Russian minister further pointed out that negotiations between the United States and Iran had been close to reaching success as recently as June.
Lavrov stressed that Western powers had done everything possible to obstruct any positive agenda in the Middle East, following what he described as a policy of “divide and incite in order to dominate”.
He added that Russia and its allies on the international stage would exert every possible effort to create conditions that prevent any military conflict in the Middle East.
Lavrov also stated that NATO is being drawn into the war initiated by the United States and the Israeli occupation state against Iran. He argued that statements made by the alliance’s secretary general regarding the conflict indicate that NATO’s interests “lie wherever it is told they lie”.
From the first day of the escalation, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already described the Israeli American aggression against Iran as a “reckless step”, calling for an immediate return to diplomatic channels to resolve the crisis.
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