MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/. Middle East security remains tenuous as the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran seems to be crumbling apart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"First of all, we had high hopes for and actively supported the United States and Iran’s steps when they signed the memorandum of understanding. The sides loudly lauded this document and it seemed at first that everything would go more or less smoothly. But these hopes have been dashed," he said after talks with his visiting Azerbaijani counterpart, Jayhun Bayramov.

"Security risks remain in place. The Israeli leadership has publicly stated that it is not bound by the memorandum’s provisions. Moreover, President [of the US Donald] Trump has also said that he no longer recognizes this memorandum. And now, Israel is pushing its line in southern Lebanon and southern Syria quite actively, very persistenly, let's say," Lavrov added.