Author: Dmitry Antonov and Vladimir Soldakin
MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) – Russia warned on Tuesday that a war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran could have the very outcome they want to prevent by spurring Iran and its Arab neighbors to seek to acquire nuclear weapons.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies, was one of the reasons the U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Saturday that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sparking a war that has spread across the Middle East.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the logical outcome is that “there will be troops in Iran… that support doing what the Americans want to avoid – acquiring a nuclear bomb. Because the United States will not attack those who have a nuclear bomb.”
Lavrov told a news conference that Arab countries could also join the bomb-making race. He said there was an increasing risk that “nuclear proliferation issues will start to spiral out of control.”
“The seemingly contradictory stated noble purpose of waging a war to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons may inspire exactly the opposite trend.”
He said Moscow still had seen no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. Israel is widely seen as the only nuclear-armed state in the region, but it neither admits nor denies this.
Russia has close ties with Iran, which it views as vital to maintaining its influence in the Middle East, especially since their mutual ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was overthrown in December 2024.
President Vladimir Putin called Khamenei’s killing a cynical murder. Moscow urged an immediate cessation of hostilities.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Putin, who spoke to Gulf Arab leaders on Monday, would convey to Iran their concerns about its military strikes against them since the war began.
“Putin will certainly do everything to contribute to at least a slight easing of tensions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Vladimir Soldakin; Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Lucy Papachristou)
