Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's comment on US strikes on Iraq and Syria

The US strategic bomber attack on Iraq and Syria, which destroyed and damaged dozens of facilities and killed numerous civilians, has once again demonstrated to the world the aggressive nature of US policy in the Middle East and Washington’s total disregard for international law.

The obedient participation of British Royal Air Force in the US attack should not give anyone the illusion of an “international coalition” taking action. London has yet to answer for its zealous support of the provocations launched by its bosses in Washington.

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.

Confident of its impunity, Washington continues to sow chaos and destruction in the Middle East. The largest US air operation in the region since 2003, presented by Joe Biden as an “act of retaliation” for an unknown UAV attack on a US base in Jordan, has no justification. The attempts to flex their muscles in order to influence the political situation in the United States, as well as their desperation to salvage the failed international policies of the current US administration in the context of the ongoing election campaign are leading to a further escalation of international tensions and further undermining US credibility in the Arab world.

The recent events have confirmed that the United States is not seeking solutions to the region’s problems, nor has it ever sought any. Washington has always been content with a situation where chronic disagreements in the Middle East were only getting worse. It is not even about American strategists’ usual indifference towards the regional states’ aspirations or interests; rather, it is their obsession with creating hotbeds of tension from Finland to the Suez Canal, from Libya to Afghanistan, far from their own borders, closer to their “adversaries,” but also closer to their loyal allies in NATO and the EU.

We strongly condemn this new outrageous act of US-British aggression against sovereign states. We insist on the urgent consideration of this situation by the UN Security Council.