Russian FM says US attacks on Iran violate Islamabad memorandum of understanding
Russian FM says US attacks on Iran violate Islamabad memorandum of understanding
M.U.H
15/07/202621
Tehran: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Tuesday that the United States has violated a recently signed memorandum of understanding with Iran by resuming military strikes against Iranian territory.
“We consider the renewed military aggression against Iran a violation of the memorandum,” Lavrov was quoting as saying by the TASS news agency, while speaking at a joint press conference in Moscow following talks with his Chadian counterpart.
He said the resumption of strikes had broader consequences beyond Iran itself.
“The resumption of attacks on Iran is regrettable, because both civilian infrastructure in Iran and civilian facilities in [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council countries have been damaged — this situation will lead to no good outcome,” Lavrov said, warning that the military path offered no resolution to the dispute.
“Renewed attacks on Iran will not lead to a settlement of the conflict,” he said, adding that the strikes had closed “a door that seemed to have been opened with the signing of the memorandum.”
Asked whether future US-Iran agreements could be implemented, Lavrov pointed to the Alaska summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, where agreements were reached but not honored.
“I cannot predict how the United States will handle any agreement reached with Washington’s participation,” he said, “but I understand there are internal political problems and issues ahead of the US Congressional elections.”
The renewed US aggression began last Tuesday after Washington’s government claimed Iran had targeted vessels transiting the southern Strait of Hormuz.
Trump, speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, declared that no understanding with Iran remained in place and that the ceasefire was over.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued Monday, condemned the strikes as a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, specifically Article 2, Paragraph 4, and said they had undermined months of diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions in West Asia.
The Ministry said that only 25 days after the signing of a war-termination memorandum, “the American regime has openly violated nearly all components of that agreement” by striking Iran’s transport infrastructure, fishing boats, cargo vessels, and meteorological facilities, “committing the gravest war crimes.”
Tehran announced early this week that the Strait of Hormuz had been closed to shipping due to insecurity created by US military action, and that it would reopen once Iran ensured safe passage.
Trump, in several interviews and social media posts, claimed the strait was under American control and had been reopened, an assertion at odds with figures provided by authoritative news sources.
The US president also claimed Washington intended to become the “guardian angel of the Strait of Hormuz” and collect a 20 percent levy on the value of each passing cargo, a claim that drew broad international criticism.
On the question of Iran’s own commitments, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei, responding to IRNA at Monday’s press briefing, said Iran had never been the first to breach its obligations.
“Iran adheres to the principle of ‘commitment for commitment,’” Baqaei said, “and will honor its commitments as long as the other side honors its own, but in the face of continued US violations, Iran will also suspend the implementation of its commitments.”
