UNITED NATIONS, July 23 /TASS/. Russia hopes that the deal on Iran’s nuclear program will hold back the Middle East and Persian Gulf states from the arms race and will encourage them to start searching together for approaches to resolve regional problems, Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin told a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday.
He said that the deal which the UN Security Council unanimously adopted by a resolution on July 20 had clearly demonstrated that a political will based on realism and respect for legitimate interests of each other could help resolving the most complicated tasks.
"We hope that it will help the countries of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf to refrain from destabilizing steps; hold back the arms race in the region and will encourage them to jointly search for approaches to the solution of security problems and improvement of the situation in broader regional borders," the Russian diplomat said.
The deal between Teheran and a group of six international brokers (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) was one of the main subjects of UN Security Council debates on the Middle East on Thursday. A speech by Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor stood out from the general positive assessments of Iran’s deal. He said that the final agreement did not promise anything good to the Jewish state, the region and the whole world.
It is a historical mistake that had brought Iran closer to achieving what it had sought for the past 30 years — to have nuclear weapons at its disposal and use it to expand its empire, the Israeli diplomat said. He described Iran as the root cause of instability in the Middle East and the godfather of global terror.