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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Sunday, with both sides stressing the urgent need to stop attacks on key infrastructure amid rising tensions around Iran.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, "The Ministers stressed the importance of immediately ceasing the reckless and illegal attacks on civilian, industrial & energy infrastructure, including the Bushehr NPP [Nuclear Power Plant]." The statement said that "on behalf of Russia, Sergey Lavrov expressed hope that efforts taken by certain countries to de-escalate tensions around Iran would succeed for the sake of a lasting and sustainable normalisation of the situation in the Middle East, whereby the United States' abandoning the language of ultimatums and returning to negotiations would be instrumental." https://x.com/mfa_russia/status/2041086793572098279 Both sides also warned against actions that could affect diplomatic efforts. "The Ministers spoke out against any actions, including within the UN Security Council, that could undermine the remaining chances for promoting political and diplomatic efforts to settle the crisis," the statement said. Raising safety concerns, the ministry added, "Both sides stressed the importance of immediately ceasing the reckless and illegal attacks on civilian, industrial, and energy infrastructure, including the Bushehr NPP, which operates under the IAEA safeguards." It further noted, "It was unacceptable to create threats to the lives and health of the power plant's workers, or risks of a radioactive disaster for the entire region." Lavrov also "offered his condolences following the death of the plant's Iranian worker," the statement added. Earlier on Saturday, Araghchi wrote to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, condemning US-Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, including the Bushehr nuclear plant, according to Al Jazeera. In the letter, the Iranian minister warned that the strikes "expose the entire region to a serious risk of radioactive contamination with serious human and environmental consequences." Highlighting the risks, he said, "The repeated attacks by the aggressors in the vicinity of the active Bushehr nuclear power plant are of great concern." He added that the "proximity of these attacks to an active nuclear facility creates an intolerable situation that poses a serious risk of radiological release." Meanwhile, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, expressed "deep concern" over the incident while confirming that no increase in radiation levels has been detected. In a statement shared on X, the UN nuclear watchdog said it had been informed by Iran that a projectile struck near the plant earlier in the day, marking the fourth such incident in recent weeks amid the escalating West Asia conflict. (ANI)
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