News / Brèves Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente Attack on Iran Would Trigger a ’Chain Reaction’: Lavrov 19 January 2012 At a press conference on Jan 18 in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Seregi Lavrov said a military attack on Iran would trigger a "chain reaction" that would destabilize the world, while new sanctions against Tehran would "stifle" the Iranian economy and hurt its people. Lavrov said Russia is "seriously worried" about the prospect of a military action against Iran and is doing all it can to prevent it. "The consequences will be extremely grave," he said. "It’s not going to be an easy walk. It will trigger a chain reaction, and I don’t know where it will stop." He also pointed out that sanctions on Iranian oil exports have "nothing to do with a desire to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation." "It is aimed at stifling the Iranian economy and the population in an apparent hope to provoke discontent," the Russian Foreign Minister said. Russia believes that "all conceivable sanctions already have been applied," and that new penalties could derail hopes for continuing six-way negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, provoking Iranian intransigence, he added. Meanwhile, Iran’s official IRNA news agency said a senior security official, Ali Bagheri, had headed to Moscow for talks with Lavrov. On Syria, Lavrov told the press conference: "For us the red line is clear. We won’t back any sanctions or deployment of troops in Syria." He said the Russian draft resolution, currently proposed for discussion at the Security Council, has the support of China and the BRICS Group of countries, and is aimed at reaching a political solution through internal national dialogue and preventing the United Nations from interfering in the internal affairs of Syria. Lavrov reiterated his country’s criticism and rejection of the operations of arms smuggling into Syria, saying: "There is an undeniable fact that arms are being smuggled to the gunmen and extremists in Syria who have been trying to exploit the protest movement in order to achieve their goals to usurp power."