MOSCOW. Aug 1 (Interfax) - The United States is artificially fomenting tensions in the Persian Gulf as if looking for a pretext to switch to an active stage of the conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
"I'll point out that there was no need to knock together any coalitions to enforce security [in the Gulf area] before Americans started artificially fomenting tensions. This is being done deliberately and artificially. You get the feeling that Washington is simply looking for a pretext to foment tensions and continue its aggressive rhetoric addressed to Iran and to switch to a more active, hot phase of the conflict," Zakharova said at a news briefing in Moscow on Thursday.
The Americans are guided by their domestic political considerations and a new phase of the electoral cycle, she said.
"We say this every time and assert that this is a vicious practice in search of voters' support. And in the grand scheme of things, we're talking not about the voters' support but, again, about the manipulation of minds and information, and through that, influence on [electoral] ratings," Zakharova said.
"The allies of the U.S. in these coalitions should think about the fact that they are again being drawn into somebody else's game as pawns," she said.