Deploying More US Troops to Middle East Will Increase Risks in the Region: Lavrov

MOSCOW- US President Donald Trump’s decision to send 1,500 troops to the Middle East may increase risks in the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Monday, according to Itar Tass.

“Regarding President Trump’s decision to send 1,500 servicemen in addition to those now deployed to the Middle East and North Africa, as you know, risks always grow during a military buildup,” Lavrov said in a news conference after talks with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla.

Lavrov expects that Washington will hear sober voices that waging a war against Tehran is nonsense. “At least we have grounds to hope for that. Today not everyone in the US leadership is obsessed with an aggressive drive,” Lavrov stressed.

 US President Donald Trump instructed Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan on May 24 to send an additional US contingent to the Middle East amid escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran. According to CNN, the US will deploy Patriot missile batteries, a reconnaissance aircraft and forces to contain Iranian threats, Tass said.

Lavrov castigates US attempts to reshape Latin America as it sees fit

Lavrov also said that Moscow and Havana deem as unacceptable Washington’s attempts to reformat Latin America in the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine (envisaging US exceptional interests in the Western Hemisphere) which run counter to principles of the UN Charter.

“We discussed Washington’s attempts to reformat that region [Latin America] as it sees fit in the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine that is being revived,” the top Russian diplomat said. “Certainly, we don’t accept these approaches and we will be firmly defending provisions and principles of the UN Charter,” Lavrov added.

“The experience of Cuba confirms the failure of the policy of dictation in international affairs and futility of power politics,” he went on to say. “We see eye-to-eye with the Cuban friends as to inadmissibility of the illegitimate sanction pressure and confirm that we are categorically against the US economic, trade and financial blockade against Cuba. We will continue to resolutely support the rightful demands of Havana that this blockade be stopped without delay,” the top diplomat added.

According to him, this position reflects a joint stance “of the overwhelming majority of global nations”. “At the previous session of the UN General Assembly in December 2018, 189 nations voted in favor of the resolution demanding to abolish this illegitimate embargo, and only two (Israel and the US) voted against,” Lavrov reiterated.

US pressure on Cuba runs counter to international law

Lavrov told the news conference that the US growing pressure on Cuba under the Helms-Burton Act contradicts international law.

“The decision, which was endorsed in Washington, drastically contradicts both international law and demands of the overwhelming majority of members of the international community,” Lavrov said.

In his turn, the Cuban foreign minister noted that the Helms-Burton Act was part and parcel of the US policy of pressuring third states.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo informed that as of May 2, US nationals can sue for damages over private property seized during the Cuban revolution, which has become possible due to the full implementation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, a bill passed by former US President Bill Clinton in 1996. Earlier, Washington regularly suspended the implementation of the Helms-Burton Act, which enables US citizens to sue foreign companies doing business in the US and investing in this property on the island.

H.M