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A meeting of the United Nations Security Council on New York City on September 21, 2023. Photo: Bryan R. Smith/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Russian foreign ministry on Saturday accused Washington of escalating the conflict in the Middle East with its retaliatory strikes against Iran-affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria, and called for the United Nations Security Council to meet on the matter.
In the late hours of Friday, the US launched a major retaliation campaign against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria, striking more than 85 targets with over 125 precision munitions.
Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, said that Friday’s attacks prove that Washington is not seeking a solution to the problems in the Middle East but is rather looking to sow further chaos and destruction.
“It is clear that the airstrikes were specifically intended to further escalate the conflict. By relentlessly attacking the facilities of allegedly pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria, the United States has been purposefully attempting to draw the largest countries in the region into the conflict,” read a statement from the spokesperson.
Zakharova said Moscow insists on “the urgent consideration of this situation by the UN Security Council,” stressing that there is “no justification” for the American strikes.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, announced in a post on X that Moscow has called for an urgent meeting of the Security Council to address the American strikes and the threats they pose to international peace and security.
Following Russia’s request, AFP, citing unnamed diplomatic sources, reported that the Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the US attacks in Iraq and Syria on Monday.
The strikes killed at least 16 people and injured 25 more in Iraq’s western Anbar province, near the Syrian border, announced the Iraqi government. At least 23 pro-Iran fighters were killed in Syria, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor.
Washington conducted the airstrikes in retaliation for the deaths of three American soldiers in a drone attack in Jordan last Sunday. The attack has been blamed on Iraqi militia groups who have carried out some 165 such assaults on US interests in Iraq and Syria since October in protest over US support for Israel in its war on Gaza.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) on Saturday said that it “regrets the loss of life and injuries” due to the strikes and urged maximum restraint from all sides, stressing that the continuation of such attacks could result in “devastating consequences.”
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2019.
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