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Persian Gulf mission crude attempt by US to pressure Iran, says Russia

Thursday, 01 August 2019 3:29 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 01 August 2019 5:31 PM ]

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

Russia says a proposed US-led mission to purportedly help secure the Strait of Hormuz is a pretext for Washington to further pressure Tehran and destabilize the Persian Gulf region.

Speaking at a news briefing in Moscow on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, "Events there [Persian Gulf region] are really moving to a dangerous point and there are risks of a large-scale military clash.”

She also noted that Russia believes the US is merely looking for a “pretext to whip up the situation, continue its aggressive rhetoric towards Iran, and to shift to a hotter more active phase of the conflict.”

A US move to set up an international naval patrol force in the Strait of Hormuz looks like “a crude attempt to pressure” the Islamic Republic, Zakharova said.

The US has asked a number of countries to join the so-called mission. On Tuesday, it officially asked Germany to participate alongside Britain and France. However, the request was rejected by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas a day later. Maas stressed diplomacy instead.

PressTV-Germany will not join US-led Persian Gulf patrol force

Germany's foreign minister says it won't join a US-led mission to protect international shipping near Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf.

On Thursday, the US ambassador to Germany took a swipe against Berlin for refusing to participate in the mission and said America had “sacrificed a lot” to help Germany remain part of the West.

PressTV-US rails against Germany over refusal to join PG mission

The United States’ hotheaded ambassador to Germany rails against Berlin for refusing to join a US plan to establish a naval mission in the Persian Gulf.

The idea for a maritime force publicly emerged on July 9, when US Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Washington was planning to form an international maritime security force to allegedly ensure freedom of navigation in waters off Iran and Yemen.

That development came after several oil tankers came under allegedly sabotage attacks near the Persian Gulf in June, with the US and its ally Saudi Arabia blaming the Islamic Republic for the attacks.

Tehran rejected the accusations as baseless and said the incidents were “suspicious,” indicating a belief that false flag operations may have been carried out in an attempt to justify some form of foreign military intervention in the region.

Iran has also rejected any foreign military presence in the region, stressing that regional countries alone are to provide such security.

The US has already engaged in a military buildup in the Persian Gulf, including by ordering the accelerated dispatch of an aircraft carrier to the region.

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