MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that the United States was dividing the international system that Washington helped build, saying it had taken illegal actions to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and threatened to attack Iran.
“We are talking about serious violations of international law,” Lavrov said of the U.S. operation to capture Maduro, adding that Russia remained committed to honoring its agreement with Russia’s ally Venezuela.
“Taken together, this and other actions on the international stage demonstrate that our American colleagues are breaking down the entire system they helped create over the years,” he said.
Lavrov, who has served as foreign minister since 2004, said that the entire international order and globalization have been “flushed down the drain” and are now being fragmented.
When asked about the U.S. threat to Iran, Lavrov said Moscow needs to continue to cooperate with Tehran and implement bilateral agreements and that no other country can change the nature of relations between Russia and Iran.
Lavrov said the United States was damaging its own image by abandoning long-standing principles.
“It looks very unreliable for our American colleagues to do this,” Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow with his Namibian counterpart.
Asked about a Bloomberg report that White House envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were seeking to travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lavrov said Putin has repeatedly said he is willing to have serious discussions about peace in Ukraine.
Lavrov said it would be helpful if Washington informed Moscow of its latest peace proposals regarding Ukraine.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldakin and Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge/Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Andrew Osborne)