MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/. The attack by Shia armed units, making part of the Islamic Resistance of Iraq movement, on the US military base Ain al-Asad in the Anbar Province was a demonstration of force, Russian Ambassador to Iraq Elbrus Kutrashev said in an interview with Izvestia daily.

"Indeed these attacks have resumed, and on quite a large-scale, on the one hand. On the other hand, one should not overestimate the scale of what is happening, this looks more like a show of force, or a warm-up ahead of something more substantial," the ambassador said.

According to the diplomat, the possible escalation into something more substantial depends "on what will be going on in Palestine, specifically around Gaza, but also in the West Bank." "If we see an escalation there, and even more so a ground offensive, then various forces in the region will undoubtedly get involved, and everything may flare up," Kutrashev added.

"This is actually what Russia, together with like-minded [countries] fears, trying to prevent [escalation] through the settlement of the situation surrounding Gaza," he went on to say. In this regard, the ambassador stated that attempts to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have been failing for now, since Russia's "opponents do not allow it to be done".