Russia urges US not to strike Iran, warns world ‘millimetres' from nuclear calamity
Russia is telling the United States not to strike Iran because it would radically destabilise the Middle East, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday, and Moscow said Israeli strikes risked triggering a nuclear catastrophe.
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Russia signed a strategic partnership with Iran in January and also has a relationship with Israel, although it has been strained by Moscow's war in Ukraine. A Russian offer to mediate in the Israel-Iran conflict has not been taken up.
Ryabkov, speaking on the sidelines of an economic forum in St. Petersburg, told Interfax news agency that Moscow was urging Washington to refrain from direct involvement.
'This would be a step that would radically destabilise the entire situation,' Interfax cited Ryabkov as saying, and criticising such 'speculative, conjectural options'.
The head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, has said the situation between Iran and Israel is now critical, and foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear infrastructure meant the world was 'millimetres' from catastrophe.
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'Nuclear facilities are being struck,' she said, adding that the UN nuclear safety watchdog had already noted specific damage.
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