Washington’s claims it that defends non-proliferation don’t hold water, Russia’s top diplomat has argued
The US-Israeli attack on Iran could spur nuclear proliferation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned.
Washington and West Jerusalem say they launched their joint assault on Saturday to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, repeating the justification they used in last year’s attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
On Tuesday, Lavrov criticized Steve Witkoff, special envoy for US President Donald Trump, for calling Iran’s insistence on its right to uranium enrichment unacceptable. Witkoff told Fox News: “We of course responded that the president feels we have the inalienable right to stop you dead in your tracks.”
“If this logic is being pushed, I guarantee that powerful forces will arise in Iran seeking exactly what the United States seeks to prevent: to make a nuclear bomb, because people who have nuclear bombs don’t get attacked by the US,” Lavrov said.
Iran’s right to a peaceful nuclear program, including uranium enrichment, is recognized under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which allows such activity with International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
“In a seemingly paradoxical twist, the declared noble cause of preventing nuclear proliferation through a war could stimulate the opposite trend,” Lavrov said.
He added that foreign diplomats have told him the fate of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi – who abandoned his nuclear program only to be overthrown and killed in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising – serves as a powerful argument for nuclearization.
Iran maintains that weapons of mass destruction are forbidden under Islam. The late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, assassinated in the opening phase of the current hostilities, issued a spiritual decree against nuclear arms in the 1990s. Tehran denies Israeli claims that it secretly seeks nuclear capability in violation of the fatwa.
