Russia is discouraging the United States (U.S.) from attacking Iran because such an action would radically destabilize the Middle East, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Wednesday, and Moscow assesses that Israel’s attacks risk triggering a nuclear catastrophe.
Russia signed a strategic partnership with Iran in January, but it also has relations with Israel, although Moscow’s war in Ukraine is causing concern for Israeli authorities. Russia’s offer to mediate in the Israeli-Iranian conflict was not accepted.
Speaking on the sidelines of the economic forum in Saint Petersburg, Ryabkov said that Moscow is calling on Washington to refrain from direct involvement.
“It would be a step that would radically destabilize the entire situation,” media quoted Ryabkov, criticizing such “speculative options that are merely being guessed at.”
The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service SVR, Sergey Naryshkin, said the situation between Iran and Israel is now critical, and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated that Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure mean the world is “millimeters” from catastrophe.
“They are targeting nuclear facilities,” she said, adding that the United Nations (UN) nuclear safety watchdog has already recorded concrete damage.
“Where is the entire international community? Where are all the environmentalists? I don’t know whether they think they are far away and that this (radiation) wave won’t reach them. Well, let them read what happened in Fukushima,” said Zakharova, referring to the disaster at the Japanese nuclear power plant in 2011.
In the 20-year strategic partnership pact signed in January by President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Russia did not commit to military assistance to Tehran and is not obliged to do so despite the countries’ close military ties.
Putin, who already lost an important partner in the Middle East with the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last December, spoke by phone on Saturday with U.S. President Donald Trump. He offered Moscow’s services as a mediator, to which Trump said he was open, only to later demand Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
A source familiar with internal U.S. discussions said that Trump and his team are considering options, including joining Israel in attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, said that the conflict, although Russia opposes it, could bring some benefits to Moscow, including higher oil prices, increased demand from China for Russian oil due to difficulties in obtaining Iranian oil, and a redistribution of U.S. military resources away from Ukraine.
