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Russia is against attempts to provoke disagreement between Iran and Arab states — Lavrov

The Russian foreign minister stresses that a split in the Muslim world is unacceptable

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with his Saudi counterpart Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with his Saudi counterpart

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

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MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. Russia believes that the attempts to present disagreement in Iran’s relations with the Arab states of the Gulf as a split in the Muslim world are unacceptable, Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday after a meeting of the Russia - Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (CCASG) dialogue.

"We know about the existing disagreements that are purely specific in nature, but we also know about the very dangerous attempts to present these disagreements as a reflection of a split in the Muslim world," he said. "We believe that such attempts to provoke the situation in this sphere are unacceptable. It is in the interests of Islam to ensure unity of all its branches."

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"We believe that any country in any region, of course, has the right to develop contacts with its neighbors, make new friends, build a relationship with them", the Russian foreign minister said.

According to him, it is absolutely normal and natural for any country to seek to strengthen its influence over its borders. "Of course, this should be done based on full respect for the international law principles, transparently, legitimately, without attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states", the minister said.

Lavrov added that Russia "would like to help solve specific problems" in relations between the CCASG countries and Iran. "We have good relations with the CCASG members and Iran, we will be ready to use these good relations in order to help create the conditions for a specific conversation on normalization, which can be attained only through direct dialogue of the two sides," he said.

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