Russian FM warns against ‘grave’ repercussions of Iran hit

Russia has once again warned against the 'grave' consequences of a military strike on Iran over Tehran's nuclear energy program. “It is hard to predict consequences [of military action,] but they would obviously be very serious and negative,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in response to a question at Yerevan State University during his visit to Armenia on Monday. He also dismissed the West’s anti-Iran sanctions and pointed out, “Attempts to impose new unilateral sanctions upon Iran by the United States, Japan, some European and other countries are unacceptable.” Lavrov noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors “currently work at all nuclear objects of Iran and have uncovered no illicit activities so far." The US, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear energy program. Washington and Tel Aviv have at times threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear installations to stop the country’s atomic activities. Iran refutes the Western allegations regarding its nuclear energy program and argues that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the IAEA, it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, but has never found any evidence indicating that Tehran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.