Russia criticises West as Iran tension escalates

China and Russia have warned the West over the Iran tension Increasing tensions and Western pressure are undermining the chances Iran will cooperate with efforts to ensure it is not seeking nuclear weapons, Russia said on Thursday as Germany said it had launched a probe into reports Tehran was planning to attack U.S. targets in Germany.
“We speak out categorically against cranking up a spiral of tension and confrontation on issues linked with Iran. We believe that this ... is fraught with severe consequences,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told a news briefing.
Lukashevich said the storming of Britain’s embassy in Tehran on Tuesday could not be justified.
“The increasing tensions in relations with Tehran is essentially blocking the renewal of talks” between Iran and six global powers leading efforts to ensure Iran abides by commitments not to seek nuclear arms, he said.
Lukashevich said Tehran was not answering the world’s questions about its nuclear programme but suggested the West deserved much of the blame for the growing tensions, according to Reuters.
He repeated Russia’s criticism of a recent IAEA report that deepened Western fears Tehran wants to build a nuclear bomb, as well as its opposition to US and European sanctions and its anger over talk of a potential military strike against Iran.
“We are talking about the counterproductive, ill-timed and weakly based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report,” Lukashevich said.
“We are also talking about the imposition by some states of extra-territorial, unilateral sanctions ... and the completely unacceptable threats of the use of force against Iran.”
Britain urged the European Union on Thursday to tighten sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme. China warned against “emotionally charged actions” that might aggravate a row between London and Tehran.
Ambassadors and diplomats in Tehran were “shocked” by the extent of damage wreaked inside Britain’s two diplomatic compounds by Iranian protesters this week, several of them told AFP after visiting the premises on Thursday.
“Everybody was shaken. People were pale, shocked by what they saw,” one Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
“It was tough seeing the residences. There were personal belongings everywhere. Peoples' privacy was violated,” said one diplomat on Thursday.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday’s assaults on the diplomatic compounds could only have taken place with the approval of Iranian authorities.
Russia urged Iran to investigate the attack on Tuesday in which a crowd ransacked offices and burned British flags in a protest over British sanctions.
“We have condemned the illegal incursion by demonstrators. Such actions are seditious and cannot be justified,” Lukashevich said.
He said security at the Russian embassy in Tehran would be increased. “Russia and Iran have good, partner-like relations and a shared history,” he said.
Italy said Thursday it was recalling its ambassador to Iran “for consultations” after the attack on the British embassy in Tehran.
Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi made the announcement at a press conference in Brussels that was reported by Italian media. A foreign ministry official in Rome confirmed the reports.
The ministry also advised Italians in Tehran to be “on heightened alert and exercise vigilance in their movements by avoiding going near mosques, religious processions and other types of assembly.”
On Thursday, European Union foreign ministers denounced the storming of the British embassy in Tehran and warned that the EU was taking “appropriate” measures in response.
The ministers said in a statement that they were “outraged by the attack on the British Embassy in Tehran and utterly condemns it,” adding that it was a violation of the Vienna Convention requiring Iran to protect foreign embassies.
“The council considers these actions against the UK as actions against the European Union as a whole. The EU is taking appropriate measures in response,” the statement said.
The ministers also adopted new sanctions against Iran, placing travel bans and assets freezes and 180 companies and people directly involved in the country’s disputed nuclear programme.
The US State Department said on Thursday that it supports increasing pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme, including carefully designed, targeted and timed sanctions on its central bank.
“The Obama administration strongly supports increasing the pressure on Iran, and that includes properly designed and targeted sanctions against the central bank of Iran, appropriately timed as part of a part of a carefully phased and sustainable policy towards bringing about Iranian compliance with its obligations,” US Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said in testimony before a congressional panel, according to Reuters.
Russia and China approved four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, after working together to blunt tougher Western proposals.
Moscow, which built the Islamic nation’s first nuclear power plant, opposes further sanctions.
It is calling for a step-by-step process in which existing sanctions would be eased in return for actions by Iran to dispel the concerns it could be seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran says its programme is aimed at increasing electricity production.
Iran planned to attack US targets
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in Germany said Thursday they had launched a probe into reports Iran was planning to attack American targets in Germany in the event of U.S. military action against Tehran.
Mass circulation daily Bild earlier reported that Tehran had drawn up plans to attack U.S. forces in Germany to disrupt logistics and supply lines in the event of a conflict.
“We have an investigation on this issue,” the head of the federal prosecutors’ office, Harald Range, told reporters.
However, the head of the federal crime office, Joerg Ziercke, stressed: “We do not see any immediate danger right now.”
Bild said officers had already conducted a house search in early November in connection with the investigation but Range confirmed only “operational measures” had been taken, according to AFP.
A probe had been launched, according to Bild, against a German businessman with close links to the Iranian embassy in Berlin on “suspicion of acting as a foreign agent with the intention of sabotage.”
A US European Command spokesman said that all threats to American interests on German soil were taken “very seriously.”
“Commanders at every installation ... have the option to increase force protection measures based on their local security environment. We do not discuss specific security measures or any specific threats,” he added.
There are approximately 55,000 US military personnel in Germany, not including their family members or civilian employees.