SOCHI, October 16. /TASS/. Withdrawal of the US from the Iran nuclear deal and Washington’s threats to solve the Korean Peninsula issues through military action are damaging the already bad situation in the world, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a panel discussion dubbed "Global policy and its agenda: How to protect the world" held as part of the World Festival of Youth and Students.

"Continuous loss of mutual trust, which will be hard to restore, also arouses deep concerns," he noted. "Unfortunately, these negative tendencies were aggravated by the decision of the United States to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iran nuclear program and by Washington’s threats to solve the Korean Peninsula problems thorough military action."

According to Lavrov, "some governments are trying to pursue solely their own geopolitical goals, which harms joint work." "[They] want to benefit from crises and conflicts," the Russian foreign minister continued. "[They] are applying methods of state structure exports, imposition over other nations of values that are strange to them and ways of reforming without regard to traditions and national aspects more and more often. Use of military force by skirting the UN Security Council, application of unilateral sanctions and exterritorial use of national law seriously undermined the authority of the national law."

"As a result - a dangerous arms race and the risk of uncontrollable spread of mass destruction weapons," Lavrov concluded.

On October 13, US President Donald Trump outlined Washington’s new hard-line strategy towards Tehran. According to this strategy, the United States will counteract Iran’s "destabilizing influence" and call on the global community to unite efforts to exert pressure over the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, an elite branch of Iran’s Armed Forces). In addition, the American president refused to confirm execution by Tehran of nuclear program agreements and promised to strive for changes in it. Five permanent UN Security Council members (Russia, UK, China, US and France) and Germany coordinated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran in July 2015 directed at settlement of the Tehran nuclear program crisis. This agreement stipulates lifting of sanctions that were earlier introduced against Iran by the UN Security Council, the US and the European Union. For its part, Tehran obliged to restrict its nuclear activity by placing it under international control. The deal was launched in January 2016.