Russia has backed Iran's claim that the U.S. Navy drone shot down over the Strait of Hormuz had strayed from international airspace into that of the Islamic Republic.
A number of senior Russian officials have warned of the consequences of escalations between the United States and Iran in the Persian Gulf, where Moscow has sought to ease growing tensions it mostly blamed on Washington.
"I really want to believe that there will be no war. When we say 'war,' we sometimes mean short-term conflicts, unfortunately, and this cannot be ruled out, because tensions are running high," Kabulov told reporters, according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency."But this does not mean that it is inevitable, it is still possible to return to a conventional political process, and Russia is doing its best to make this happen.
Iranian ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi holds up maps of the Strait of Hormuz while speaking to the media before a meeting with other UN members on the escalating situation with the U.S. at the U.N. headquarters, June 24 in New York City. Iran has claimed the downded U.S. Navy RQ-4A spy drone had enter Iran's airspace, a claim now backed by Russia in spite of Pentagon denials.
The U.S. and Iran have been at odds for much of the four decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ended Iran's 2,500-year-old, West-sponsored monarchy and brought to power the clerical leadership that exists today. The two rivals briefly came together—alongside China, the EU, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom—to forge a 2015 nuclear deal that lifted international sanctions against Iran in exchange for curbing nuclear activities, but Trump abandoned the deal last year.
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