MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. The Middle East risks plunging into a new war with the US and Iran exchanging strikes; Moscow retaliates as Kiev steps up attacks on Russian civilian targets; and global food crisis risks rise once again. These stories topped Thursday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Media: Middle East risks plunging into new war
The United States and Iran still favor the use of military pressure over diplomatic means. The ceasefire that was declared in the Persian Gulf region in early April is on the verge of collapse, Vedomosti writes.
In the early hours of June 3, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked Kuwait International Airport, a US-linked oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, and an airbase of an undisclosed country. According to Iran’s military, this came in retaliation for US strikes on an Iranian oil vessel and drone control facilities.
Iran seeks to employ military tools to compel the US to make compromises in talks, Yury Lyamin, senior researcher at the Center for Strategies and Technologies, believes. The current US administration views restraint and willingness to accept concessions as signs of weakness, which only encourage it to put more pressure on the opponent, the expert noted. In his view, this is why Tehran is trying to respond to any US acts of provocation in order to make Washington agree to at least a temporary ceasefire.
