Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview made public on Wednesday, \u200bsaid that any new U.S. strike on Iran would have serious consequences and called for restraint to find \u200ba solution to enable Iran to pursue a peaceful nuclear \u200bprogramme. Lavrov’s interview with Saudi \u2060Arabia’s Al-Arabiya television was aired a day after U.S. and Iranian negotiators held indirect talks \u200bin Geneva to head \u200coff a new mounting crisis between Washington and Tehran. “The consequences are not good. There have already been strikes on Iran \u200bon nuclear sites under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency. From what we can judge there were real risks of a nuclear incident,” \u200cLavrov said \u200cin the interview, which \u200bwas posted on his ministry’s website. “I am carefully watching reactions in the region from Arab countries, Gulf monarchies. No one wants an increase in tension. Everyone understands this is playing with \u200bfire.” Boosting tensions, he said, could undo the p
ositive steps of recent years, including improved relations between Iran and nearby countries, notably Saudi Arabia. A senior U.S. official \u200btold Reuters on Wednesday that Iran was expected to submit a written proposal on how to resolve its standoff with the United States after the talks in Geneva. U.S. national security advisers met in the White House on Wednesday and \u200cwere told all U.S. military forces deployed to the region should be in place by mid-March, the official said. The United States wants Iran to \u2060give up its \u200bnuclear programme, and Iran has adamantly refused and denied it is trying to develop an atomic weapon. Lavrov said Arab countries were sending signals to Washington “clearly calling for restraint and \u2060a search for \u2060an agreement that will not \u2060infringe on Iran’s lawful rights and … guarantee that Iran has a purely peaceful nuclear enrichment programme”. Russia, he said, remained in close, regular contact with Iran’s leaders “and we have no reaso<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview made public on Wednesday, \u200bsaid that any new U.S. strike on Iran would have serious consequences and called for restraint to find \u200ba solution to enable Iran to pursue a peaceful nuclear \u200bprogramme. Lavrov’s interview with Saudi \u2060Arabia’s Al-Arabiya television was aired a day after U.S. and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n