United Nations: Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities that “the US has opened a Pandora’s box” and “no one knows what new catastrophes and suffering it will bring.”

He said Russia offered its mediation to the US to find a peaceful and mutually agreeable solution to Iran’s nuclear programme, but the United States, especially its leaders, are “clearly not interested in diplomacy today”.

“Unless we stop the escalation,” Nebenzia warned, “the Middle East will find itself on the verge of a large scale conflict with unpredictable consequences for the entire international security system, plus the entire world might end up on the verge of a nuclear disaster.”