MOSCOW. March 21(Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that carrying out strikes against Iran will force Tehran to start producing its own nuclear weapon.
"Whereas now, even the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and other U.S. officials admit that there is no information that Iranian leaders have made a political decision to produce nuclear weapon, I am convinced that after strikes against Iran such a decision is almost certain to be made," Lavrov said in an interview with the Kommersant FM radio station.
Everything that is happening around the escalation of tensions around Iran is "prompting many third-world states to ponder: if you have a nuclear bomb, you are not likely to be harassed, some minor sanctions may be applied against you but you are being babysat, cajoled and persuaded all the time," the Russian foreign minister said.
He cited the example of North Korea which stated openly about having and testing a nuclear device. "And all of us behave responsibly. We are not proposing to bomb North Korea. We insist on the immediate resumption of talks and are searching for ways to make these talks productive and conducive to some constructive deals," the minister said.
"This is what (primarily) the United States has been doing," he said. Many analysts believe that if Iran did have a nuclear bomb, "it would not be so harassed now with threats, no one would want to bomb it," he said.
"Moreover, some of Iran's neighbors are beginning to go like this, "Gaddafi refused from a nuclear bomb many years ago. Had he had it, he probably would not have ended up the way he did. And they are beginning to consider starting a nuclear program of their own," the Russian foreign minister said.
Aggressive swoops against Iran pose "more risk rather than consolidate the non-proliferation regime," Lavrov said.
In the event of strikes being carried out against Iran, which causes serious fears, "the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) can lose a possibility of real-time, 24-hour, daily monitoring of what is happening at the Iranian nuclear facilities," he said. "As long as such a monitoring is under way, centrifuges cannot be switched over to produce an armed Iran," he said.
"Scientists in virtually every country, who analyze this scenario that nobody needs, are convinced that strikes can slow down Iran's nuclear program, but will never cancel, close or eliminate it," the Russian foreign minister said.