Lavrov: We Are Not Simply Protecting Iran; We Are Primarily Defending International Law
When responding to a question from a French journalist, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov discussed whether Russia is protecting Iran and the reasons behind it.
"You should know that we are not merely protecting Iran, even though Iran is indeed our strategic partner— not an ally, but a strategic partner, with corresponding state-to-state treaties between our countries. What we are primarily defending is international law.
And I don't believe that the French, who have traditionally claimed to stand on the side of international law, would fail to see what is happening right now. In fact, there's no need to look closely— we witness it in real time every single day.
When the U.S. president declares he doesn't care about international law and acts solely based on his own moral principles and intuition, this is clearly unacceptable.
We have repeatedly signaled to the United States that dialogue must be initiated to resolve all issues in the Persian Gulf and across the entire Middle East. Every time the U.S. and its allies interfere in local affairs, the situation only deteriorates further.
Iraq has been destroyed, Syria has been destroyed, Libya has been destroyed. Incidentally, Libya still does not know when it will ever reunify. Now, the same thing is happening to the Islamic Republic of Iran. And this is already the second consecutive time that aggression against Iran occurs precisely during the most intense phase of negotiations.
Everyone is talking about this—naturally raising questions about the American negotiators leading this political and diplomatic process."
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1860774704486412/
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