Tabnak – US administration’s increasingly hostile approach toward Iran, represented in its policy of “maximum pressure”, continues to spark negative reactions from other major world powers. Russia and China once again warn the US over the implications of its policy toward the Islamic Republic.
In this vein, Russia has urged the United States to drop its “provocative” plans to deploy more troops to the Middle East, warning Washington against its “conscious” course of attempts to “provoke war” with Iran.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow had repeatedly warned Washington and its regional allies about the “unthinking and reckless pumping up of tensions in an explosive region.”
“Now what we see are unending and sustained US attempts to crank up political, psychological, economic and yes military pressure on Iran in quite a provocative way. They (such actions) cannot be assessed as anything but a conscious course to provoke war,” he added.
“If that’s the case, the US should refrain from further reinforcement of its presence and from other steps, including dragging and pushing its allies in various parts of the world into stepping up pressure on Iran,” Ryabkov said.
Meanwhile, China denounced the US for exerting “extreme pressure” on Iran, warning Washington against opening a “Pandora’s box” in the Middle East, after the Pentagon announced a new troop deployment to the region amid tensions with Tehran.
Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi made the remarks during a joint press conference with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem in Beijing on Tuesday. Wang stressed that China was “of course, very concerned” about the situation in the region, demanding that all sides work to ease the tensions.
“We call on all sides to remain rational and exercise restraint, and not take any escalatory actions that irritate regional tensions, and not open a Pandora’s box,” he said. “In particular, the US side should alter its extreme pressure methods.”
It’s noteworthy that criticizing Washington’s Iran policy has not remained restricted to these two countries and even the Europeans have started to express concern over the issue.
A top EU diplomat says US President Donald Trump does not seem to be in control of his own administration’s policy towards Iran and that he needs to fire his National Security Advisor John Bolton, an outspoken hawk who directs the White House’s Iran policy.
In an interview with Russia’s RT on Monday, Nathalie Tocci, a special adviser to European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, said Trump has “actually been led into a very different direction” than the one he might have taken without Bolton’s sway.
“Unfortunately at the moment it seems to me that the US’s Iran policy has a very clear author and that author is not the president of the United States” the EU official said.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been rising since President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal in May 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions against Iran, mainly targeting its oil exports, shortly after he hired Bolton.
