MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday that the Middle East was teetering the brink of a major war and that key players were continuing to raise the stakes.
"The region is currently balancing on the brink of a global conflict," Andrei Nastasin, deputy spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry, said. "The parties continue to raise the stakes."
Russia said the "manic desire" of the United States to monopolise the process of political settlement in the Middle East had led to this situation.
“We strongly condemn the murder of the head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyeh, as a result of a rocket attack on his residence in Tehran,” Andrei Nastasin, Nastasin told reporters.
“It is obvious that the organisers of this political assassination were aware of the dangerous consequences this action is fraught with for the entire region.”
Russia, he said, had paid attention to the fact that the killing took place in Iran.
“We urge all parties involved to exercise restraint and abandon any steps that could lead to a dramatic degradation of the security situation in the region and provoke a large-scale armed confrontation,” Nastasin said.