Russia hit out at the US on Tuesday, three days after Washington launched Operation Epic Fury with Israel. Russian Foreign Secretaray Sergey Lavrov criticised the strikes on Iran, one of the closest allies of his country, and claimed Tehran has an « inalienable » right to enrich uranium.
According to Russian press agency Tass, « US Presidential Envoy Steven Witkoff stated that negotiations with the Islamic Republic failed because of its intention to enrich uranium », the Russian Foreign Minister also noted. Tass also quoted Lavrov saying « the right to enrich uranium for the peaceful use of nuclear energy is inalienable ».
The Russian Foreign Minister was also quoted saying: « I watched a video today of Stephen Witkoff, the American negotiator, including on Ukraine, and essentially on all matters. He was asked why everything ended so abruptly. He responded—I’m not giving away a secret, it’s now publicly available—that Iran continued to insist on its inalienable right to enrich uranium. »
The minister also reported Stephen Witkoff’s words: « And Jared Kushner and I realized that nothing would work with this position, and we need to start these negotiations and move on to other methods. But no one has ever disputed the inalienable right to enrich uranium as a principle that applies to all countries without exception that are parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. »
Fox News also added Witkoff said the US sought three outcomes from talks in Geneva last month – shuttering of Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme, withdrawal of support for military proxies like Hezbollah, and the elimination of its naval forces « so we can have freedom of the seas ». It is understood Iran has 460kg of uranium enriched to 60 per cent, which is reportedly enough to make 11 nuclear bombs. But it is also believed uranium needs to be enriched to about 90 per cent to be used as a nuclear weapon.
On Saturday afternoon the US and Israel launched missiles and drones attack towards multiple targets in Tehran, under Operation Epic Fury. Hours later Iran confirmed Khamenei died in the attack.
Iran retaliated by targeting Tel Aviv and other areas in Israel, as well as American military bases and embassies in the Middle East, including energy facilities in neighbouring countries, such as theoil refinery in Saudi Arabia.
The war then spread in the Middle East as Israel launched attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on March 2. The Lebanese health ministry has claimed at least 31 people were killed and several more were left injured following the attack. Since then, Iran has struck several countries in the Middle East, and a drone strike targeted a RAF base in Cyprus.
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