Attack on Iran aimed to prevent normalization of its relations with Arab states — Lavrov

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that one of the goals of the aggression against Iran was to prevent the normalization of relations between Tehran and Arab states. Speaking in an interview with the RT India TV channel, Lavrov argued that Western powers were actively working against reconciliation in the region, according to TASS.

Lavrov made the remarks as part of a broader critique of Western policy toward Iran, which he said was driven by interests beyond the declared aims of the conflict. He also referenced Russian proposals for a Persian Gulf security concept that he said Tehran and Arab monarchies had shown readiness to consider.

Coverage Comparison

All reporting on these statements comes from TASS, the Russian state news agency. The agency carried three separate articles covering Lavrov's comments, each focusing on a different aspect of his remarks.

One TASS report from New Delhi, dated May 15, highlighted Lavrov's suggestion that America's interest in Iran is primarily about oil. The report quoted Lavrov drawing a parallel with Venezuela, where he said a drug-trafficking narrative was invented to justify action that was actually about oil.

A second TASS report, dated May 13, focused on Lavrov's claim that the aggression was designed to prevent Iran-Arab normalization. The report also quoted Lavrov citing a summit on Sunni-Shia reconciliation held by King Abdullah II of Jordan as an example of efforts that Western powers were now trying to undermine.

A third TASS report, also dated May 13, centered on Lavrov's criticism of Western propaganda. Lavrov compared Western messaging unfavorably to Soviet propaganda, which he called more sophisticated by comparison.

Key Claims

Lavrov suggested that the US interest in Iran boils down to oil, specifically oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz. He said the declared goal of the aggression was to end 47 years of Iran allegedly terrorizing its neighbors, but he argued the real motive was oil, just as he claimed was the case in Venezuela. "Just as they invented the drug trafficking narrative to kidnap the President of Venezuela, and then it turned out that it was not about drug trafficking at all, but about Venezuelan oil that the US had its sights set on. And now with Iran, everything boils down to oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz," Lavrov said.

The foreign minister also repeated Russia's long-standing proposal for a Security Concept for the Persian Gulf. According to TASS, this concept envisaged a process of normalizing relations and building trust between Iran and Arab monarchies, with the participation of neighbors, the League of Arab States, and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Lavrov said Tehran had expressed readiness to support such an approach even before the current crisis, and that in his ongoing contacts with representatives of Arab monarchies, he sensed they also understood the need for it.

Lavrov claimed that one of the goals of the aggression was to prevent normalization between Iran and Arab states. He recalled King Abdullah II of Jordan's summit on Sunni-Shia reconciliation, saying: "Now, everything is being done to ensure that reconciliation never happens - to paint Iran, one of the major Shia countries, as a true pariah, and to pull its other Gulf neighbors into structures that, first, will not focus on resolving the Palestinian issue, and second, will force them to betray the Palestinian cause as the price for normalizing relations with Israel."

In his interview with RT India, Lavrov also accused Western ideologists of using propaganda tools to justify what he called atrocities surrounding Iran. He said that at the UN Security Council, when discussing the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, the US says Iran must be condemned, while Russia argues that Iran is responding to unprovoked aggression. Lavrov said Western attempts to persuade Arab countries to see "two different wars" were part of this propaganda effort.

"You know, in the Soviet Union, people would always whisper in their kitchens about how primitive Soviet propaganda was. But I believe that it was way ahead of what we are hearing right now from the Western ideologists who are trying to justify the atrocities happening right now," Lavrov said.