Russia warns that attack on Iran would 'trigger a chain reaction'
Source: Agencies |
January 19, 2012, Thursday
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A MILITARY attack on Iran would trigger a "chain reaction" that would destabilize the world, while new sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program would "stifle" the Iranian economy and hurt its people, Russia's foreign minister warned yesterday.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia is "seriously worried" about the prospect of a military action against Iran and is doing all it can to prevent it.
"The consequences would be extremely grave. It's not going to be an easy walk. It would trigger a chain reaction and I don't know where it would stop."
The threat of more sanctions as well as the possibility of military action against Iran are linked to Western concerns about its uranium enrichment program. The US and its allies suspect it is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists its efforts are for power generation.
Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran a threat to its survival and has hinted it could take military action if sanctions fail to stop Iran's nuclear bid.
The US considers a military strike on Iran's known nuclear facilities undesirable because it could have unintended consequences and would likely only stall, not end, Tehran's nuclear drive.
Although Moscow, which built Iran's first nuclear power plant, has backed some previous UN sanctions against Iran, it has, in recent months, rejected new ones.
Lavrov predicted that a military attack on Iran would send refugees streaming into its Caspian Sea neighbor Azerbaijan and further on to Russia, and said it could also "add fuel to the smoldering confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites."
The Sunni Arab states in the Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia, are close US allies, locked in decades-old rivalries with Iran's Shiite-led Islamic Republic.
The US has already imposed new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank.
Now the EU is weighing whether to impose sanctions on buying Iranian oil, the source of more than 80 percent of Tehran's foreign revenue.
But Lavrov said such sanctions have "nothing to do with a desire to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation."
"It's aimed at stifling the Iranian economy and the population in an apparent hope to provoke discontent," the Russian foreign minister said.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia is "seriously worried" about the prospect of a military action against Iran and is doing all it can to prevent it.
"The consequences would be extremely grave. It's not going to be an easy walk. It would trigger a chain reaction and I don't know where it would stop."
The threat of more sanctions as well as the possibility of military action against Iran are linked to Western concerns about its uranium enrichment program. The US and its allies suspect it is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists its efforts are for power generation.
Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran a threat to its survival and has hinted it could take military action if sanctions fail to stop Iran's nuclear bid.
The US considers a military strike on Iran's known nuclear facilities undesirable because it could have unintended consequences and would likely only stall, not end, Tehran's nuclear drive.
Although Moscow, which built Iran's first nuclear power plant, has backed some previous UN sanctions against Iran, it has, in recent months, rejected new ones.
Lavrov predicted that a military attack on Iran would send refugees streaming into its Caspian Sea neighbor Azerbaijan and further on to Russia, and said it could also "add fuel to the smoldering confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites."
The Sunni Arab states in the Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia, are close US allies, locked in decades-old rivalries with Iran's Shiite-led Islamic Republic.
The US has already imposed new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank.
Now the EU is weighing whether to impose sanctions on buying Iranian oil, the source of more than 80 percent of Tehran's foreign revenue.
But Lavrov said such sanctions have "nothing to do with a desire to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation."
"It's aimed at stifling the Iranian economy and the population in an apparent hope to provoke discontent," the Russian foreign minister said.
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