Lavrov says West trying to shift attention from Gaza with allegations about Iran's nuclear ambitions

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The West is trying to distract attention from the situation in the Gaza Strip with allegations about Iran's nuclear ambitions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"The desire and goal, it seems to me, is to switch the world community's attention from what is happening in the Gaza Strip, where a humanitarian disaster is unfolding and many special rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council are already talking about genocide," he said in an interview with three Russian radio stations.

Lavrov emphasized that despite the International Atomic Energy Agency's confirmation that Iran possesses no nuclear weapons, the West persists in accusing Iran of their use.

"Iran is the most inspected country of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," he emphasized.

The foreign minister attributed the current escalation between Iran and Israel as well as the complexities in Middle East, in terms of terrorism and extremism, to the lack of solution of the Palestinian problem.

"The situation is very bad, we want an end to violence, a solution to humanitarian problems and, nevertheless, first of all, the Arabs should take the initiative, with the support of all reasonable forces, to take into their own hands the issue of creating a Palestinian state," he stressed.

The minister noted that Moscow conveyed to Tel Aviv Tehran's unwillingness to further aggravate the situation.

"There were telephone contacts between the leadership of Russia and Iran, our representatives and the Israelis. We have made it very clear in these conversations and conveyed to the Israelis that Iran does not want an escalation," he said.

Israel is said to have launched early Friday an attack on a site in Iran, but officials have yet to confirm. Tehran said there was no damage and it shot down three drones over Isfahan. Tensions escalated after Iran’s retaliatory strike on Israel after an attack against its diplomatic premises in Syria.