Western strike on Iran would be "catastrophe"-Russia

A Western military strike on Iran would be a "catastrophe" that would aggravate dangerous divisions already present in the Muslim world, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

When asked at an annual news conference whether the United States and its allies would be a military strike on Iran, Lavrov said: "On the chances of whether this catastrophe will happen or not you should ask those who repeatedly talk about this."

"I have no doubt that it would pour fuel on a fire which is already smouldering, the hidden smouldering fire of Sunni-Shi'ite confrontation, and beyond that (it would cause) a chain reaction -- I don't know where it would stop," he said.

Lavrov earlier said that Western sanctions against Iran were aimed at triggering popular discontent by "strangling" the economy.    

Lavrov emphasized Russia's opposition to further U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, saying U.N. sanctions had "exhausted" their potential.         

Additional sanctions "are aimed at causing a strangling effect on the Iranian economy and... the Iranian people, probably in the hope of provoking discontent," Lavrov added.

Reuters