SOCHI, June 20. /TASS/. The United States is escalating the situation around Iran, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday, commenting on Washington’s decision to dispatch additional Patriot surface-to-air missile systems, unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft to the Middle East.

"We have spoken on many occasions that this reflects the policy towards deliberately escalating the situation. We have no doubts that the US political and military leadership is not stopping at any actions whatsoever in order to maximally complicate the situation and, most importantly, increase pressure on Iran. This fully contradicts our understanding of what has to be done in such situations, namely, to double diplomatic and political efforts to stabilize the situation and reduce tension, create pre-requisites for implementing a whole range of ideas that were also put forward by Russia, which stands for developing a system of collective security, strengthening confidence-building measures in the Persian Gulf region and establishing direct contacts between countries of that region," the high-ranking Russian diplomat stressed, responding to a question from TASS.

Otherwise, the region may plunge into a new conflict, which is "completely inadmissible, considering the grave consequences of such a scenario," Ryabkov said.

"There is still time to stop and come to senses and prevent further sliding into uncontrolled confrontation. Unfortunately, our calls and our logic to this effect, apparently, fail to meet understanding in the United States and they do not listen to us but still I think that an overwhelming majority of members of the international community share this approach and proceed from the fact that there is no alternative to it," the Russian deputy foreign minister said.

The US Defense Department announced on Wednesday that it was dispatching additional Patriot surface-to-air missile systems, unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft to the Middle East for gathering intelligence data. As the Pentagon stated, this will be done as part of the decision announced on Monday to dispatch 1,000 US military personnel to the region due to the situation around Iran.

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo earlier stated the United States was considering all options to counter Iran in the region. He let it know that the US administration would not request legislators’ approval for possible military operations against Tehran, arguing this was required to defend American interests.