Israel risking ‘nuclear catastrophe’ – Moscow

Israel’s ongoing strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities pose unacceptable threats to international security and risk plunging the world into a catastrophe, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said.

Israel began bombing Iran on Friday, claiming Tehran is nearing the completion of a nuclear bomb. Iran has dismissed the accusations as groundless and retaliated to the Israeli military operation with waves of drone and missile strikes.

“The ongoing intensive attacks by the Israeli side on peaceful nuclear facilities in Iran are illegal from the point of view of international law, create unacceptable threats to international security and push the world towards a nuclear catastrophe,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on Tuesday.

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The conflict’s escalation risks the further destabilization of the entire region, the ministry added, urging the Israeli leadership to “come to its senses and immediately stop raids on nuclear installations.”

The harsh reaction to Israel’s attack on Iran from most of the international community illustrates that the Jewish state is only supported by countries acting as its “accomplices,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Israel's backers pressured the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board to push through last week’s “biased anti-Iranian resolution” on Tehran’s nuclear program, which “gave West Jerusalem a free hand, and led to this tragedy,” according to the ministry.

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“The Western camp's attempts to manipulate the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and use it to settle political scores” are costing the international community dearly, and are “completely unacceptable,” it added.

A day before Israel’s attack on Iran, the IAEA’s board declared Tehran to be in breach of its nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) obligations.

Just weeks prior, Reuters reported, citing anonymous diplomats, that the US, UK, France and Germany were preparing to push the UN nuclear watchdog’s board to declare that Iran had broken the NPT.

Tehran has repeatedly stressed that its nuclear program is peaceful and accused Israel of using its military operation to “scuttle” Iran’s talks with the US.