Moscow, March 16 (IANS) The United States and Israel may have misjudged the prospect of a quick military operation against Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

The war was staged during negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme, said Lavrov. If the planners expected to “completely subdue” Iran within a day or even hours, they may now realise how mistaken that assumption was, he told a press conference.

Reiterating Russia’s call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, Lavrov urged the parties involved to return to negotiations and avoid actions that damage civilian infrastructure and cause civilian casualties.

He added that Russia is ready to play a mediating role in the political process if needed.

Lavrov also said on Monday that the fate of the nuclear non-proliferation regime is a source of grave concern amid escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

In a message to participants of the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference, Lavrov said the recent military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran, including strikes targetting facilities under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had dealt a serious blow to the authority of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Such actions have also hurt the credibility of diplomacy as a means of resolving disputes, Lavrov said, adding that some countries may increasingly view nuclear weapons as a guarantee of security.

He stressed the importance of preserving the pact as a key element of global strategic stability and urged all signatories, particularly nuclear-weapon states, to fulfill their obligations.

The foreign minister also noted that the risks of the militarization of outer space are increasing as a result of “destructive actions by the United States and its allies”, Xinhua news agency reported.

The implementation of the US “Golden Dome” missile defence system, which envisions deploying space-based interceptor strike systems by 2028, poses a significant threat to strategic stability, he said.

Last week, a US news website reported that US President Donald Trump has rejected a proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin to move Iran’s enriched uranium to Russia as part of a deal to end the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.

Trump turned Putin down in a phone call earlier this week, sources told Axios, an American news website based in Arlington, Virginia.

Putin raised several ideas, including the uranium proposal, for ending the war during the phone conversation with Trump on Monday (March 9), said the report.

“This is not the first time it was offered. It hasn’t been accepted. The US position is we need to see the uranium secured,” a US official was quoted as saying.

It’s not clear whether Iran would accept the proposal now. In the last round of talks before the war, Iran rejected the transfer idea and proposed diluting the uranium inside its own facilities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to the report.

Some news reports had also said that the Trump administration is considering sending special operations forces into Iran to secure or seize the country’s highly enriched uranium.

–IANS

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