MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. The threat to global nuclear security is worsening and growing in connection with the conflict in the Middle East, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated at a press conference following talks with Brunei Darussalam's Second Minister of Foreign Affairs Erywan Yusof.
"The threat is worsening, I would say, growing," Lavrov noted, answering a question about the seriousness of the threat to global nuclear security today in connection with the conflict in the Middle East.
The Russian foreign minister recalled that the US and Israel argued the main reason for attacking Iran was "the conviction that it is making a nuclear bomb," while back in June of last year, after the 12-day Iran-Israel war, Washington declared that "all components and all work on the bomb had been destroyed."
"But if this war, as I quoted Steve Witkoff, began because Iran rejected any schemes that deprive it of its inalienable right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes - a right enjoyed by all other states in the world - then if that logic continues to be advanced, I guarantee you that forces and influential movements will emerge in Iran to do precisely what the United States wants to avoid - to acquire a nuclear bomb. Because the US doesn't attack those who have nuclear bombs," Lavrov concluded.