A top Russian diplomat has responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent threats to attack Iran, reiterating Moscow’s offer to mediate between Tehran and Washington.
“Threats are indeed being heard, ultimatums are also being heard,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in a recent interview with International Affairs, a Russian political journal.
A U.S. attack on Iran would have a “catastrophic” effect on the Middle East, he said in the interview, extracts of which were published in English by Russia’s TASS news agency on April 1.
Two days earlier, Trump threatened Iran with both military and economic consequences if it did not reach an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.
“If they [the Iranians] don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” Trump told NBC News in a March 30 telephone interview. “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before. There’s a chance that if they don’t make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago.”
On the same day, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying from Florida to Washington, Trump said he would wait to see if Iran makes any progress before imposing potential secondary tariffs.
“We'll probably give it a couple of weeks,“ Trump said in response to a question from The Epoch Times. ”And if we don’t see any progress, we’re going to put them on. We’re not putting them on right now.
“I hope they have a great, long, and successful life as a country. I can’t imagine them doing anything else but making a deal. I would prefer a deal to the other alternative, which I think everybody in this plane knows what that is. And that’s not going to be pretty, and I do not prefer that.”
Commenting on Trump’s threats to take military action against Iran, Ryabkov said: “We consider such methods inappropriate. We condemn them. We consider them a way for [the United States] to impose its own will on the Iranian side”
Trump’s comments, the diplomat said, only served to “complicate the situation” regarding Iran.
“The consequences of this, especially if the [U.S.] strikes are on [Iran’s] nuclear infrastructure, could be catastrophic for the entire region,” he said. “While there is still time ... we need to redouble our efforts to try to reach an agreement [on Iran’s nuclear program] on a reasonable basis.”
Ryabkov also stressed Moscow’s readiness “to offer its good services to Washington, Tehran, and everyone who is interested in this.”
Last month, the Kremlin offered to mediate between Iran and the United States to avoid a military confrontation between the two countries.
Describing Iran as an “ally and partner” of Russia, he said that Moscow was “ready to do everything possible” to assist in finding a diplomatic solution.
In January, Russia and Iran signed a strategic partnership deal that calls for stepped-up cooperation in a range of fields.
This includes coordination between the two countries’ security services, the holding of joint military exercises, and naval visits to each other’s seaports.
Under the deal, neither country will allow its respective territory to be used by third parties to carry out aggressive actions against the other.
It also calls for the two countries to work together to counter perceived external threats, according to the text of the agreement.
The deal, however, reportedly does not include a mutual defense clause of the kind contained in a similar treaty signed last year between Russia and North Korea.
On March 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted the strategic partnership deal with Iran to Russia’s Federal Assembly for ratification.
Tehran Rejects ‘Maximum Pressure’
Soon after his return to the White House, Trump revived his “maximum pressure” policy vis-à-vis Iran, which he applied throughout much of his first term in office from 2017 to 2021.Ostensibly aimed at stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the policy entails a range of measures aimed at reducing Iranian oil exports to zero.
In 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from a seminal 2015 deal with Iran that had put limits on the latter’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
After withdrawing from the agreement (known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), Trump re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Tehran has repeatedly voiced its refusal to engage in direct talks with Washington as long as Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy remains in place.
On March 31, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, warned that Tehran would retaliate against any attack carried out by the United States.
“The enmity from the U.S. and Israel has always been there,” Khamenei said in a televised address. “They threaten to attack us, which we don’t think is very probable, but if they commit any mischief they will surely receive a strong reciprocal blow.”
