MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday said Washington should abandon “the language of ultimatums” and return to negotiations, in a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart, his office said. Lavrov’s comments came after US President Donald Trump threatened in an expletive-laden post Sunday to strike Iran’s power plants and bridges if it did not reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz.
“The Russian side expressed hope that the efforts undertaken by a number of states to de-escalate tensions around Iran will be successful,” said a Moscow read-out of Lavrov’s conversation with Iran’s Abbas Araghchi.
That, it added, “would be facilitated by the United States abandoning the language of ultimatums and returning the situation to a negotiating track”.
Lavrov and Araghchi also called on Washington to halt “illegal attacks on civilian infrastructure”, such as the Bushehr nuclear power plant, where Russian staff have been working as technicians.
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