MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has said a possible US military operation against Iran after the recent attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman would have catastrophic consequences for the middle Eastern region and the United States itself.
“The US says it does not rule out the use of force… That would be a disaster, at least for the region [the Middle East] because that would result in an outbreak of violence and maybe in the rising number of refugees from the region. But I think that those who would resort to such means would also face severe consequences, because it is very difficult to calculate consequences of the use of force,” Putin said during an annual televised phone-in with screened questions posed by Russian viewers on Thursday.
Moscow has backed Tehran in its stand-off with the United States since Washington pulled out of an international 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran last year.
Putin repeated Russia’s insistence that sanctions against Iran are “unreasonable”.
#DirectLine pic.twitter.com/zoTylORxgt
— President of Russia (@KremlinRussia_E) June 20, 2019
The comment comes at a time of growing antagonism between Iran and the US following two waves of still unexplained attacks on Gulf shipping, which Washington has blamed on Tehran.
On Thursday tensions also heightened after the Pentagon confirmed that Iranian forces had shot down a US naval surveillance drone.
The US has insisted the US Navy MQ-4C Triton was in international air space but Iran has said the drone had violated Iranian airspace.
Iran has denied any involvement and hinted that the US might have orchestrated them itself to provide a pretext for the use of force against the Islamic republic.
The state media said the “spy” drone was brought down over the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan, which is on the Gulf, with a locally made “3 Khordad” missile.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/world/iran-shoots-down-us-drone-aircraft-over-its-territory/
The Islamic Republic’s Foreign Ministry insisted the drone had violated Iranian air space and warned of the consequences of such “illegal and provocative” measures.
Independent confirmation of the drone’s location when it was brought down was not immediately available.
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards statement said the drone’s identification transponder had been switched off “in violation of aviation rules and was moving in full secrecy” when it was downed, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported.
Tensions between two countries flared with Trump’s withdrawal last year from world powers’ 2015 nuclear accord with Iran and have worsened as Washington imposed fresh sanctions to throttle Tehran’s vital oil trade and Iran retaliated earlier this week with a threat to breach limits on its nuclear activities imposed by the deal.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/world/two-tankers-catch-fire-after-suspected-gulf-of-oman-attacks/
Upping the ante, Washington said earlier this week it would deploy about 1,000 more troops, along with Patriot missiles and manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft, to the Middle East on top of a 1,500-troop increase announced after the May tanker attacks.
