{"id":121786,"date":"2026-03-03T22:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=121786"},"modified":"2026-03-03T22:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:15:19","slug":"russia-warns-iran-war-could-spur-nuclear-weapon-race-in-broader-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia warns Iran war could spur nuclear weapon race in broader Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>MOSCOW(National Times)- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow had still seen no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons as the US and Israel \u200cpursue their attack. US President Donald Trump has offered various reasons for going to war with Iran. On Monday, in his most extensive public comments so far, he said he had ordered the attack to thwart Tehran&#8217;s nuclear and ballistic\u00a0\u2060missile programmes. Lavrov told Brunei&#8217;s foreign minister during talks in Moscow: &#8220;We still see no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, which was the main, if not the only, justification for the war.&#8221; He said the consequences of the attack on Iran were being felt throughout the region, and that Arab countries were bearing economic costs and suffering casualties. He reiterated \u200cRussia&#8217;s\u00a0\u2060call for an immediate cessation of hostilities by all parties: &#8220;As an unconditional first step, we must do everything possible to stop any actions that result in civilian casualties.&#8221; He pointed to the reported bombing of a school in Iran. Iranian state media have accused Israel and the US of a strike on a girls\u2019 primary school in the southern Iranian town that Tehran said had killed more than 160 people. US Secretary of State Marco\u00a0Rubio\u00a0said US forces would not\u00a0\u200bdeliberately attack a school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MOSCOW(National Times)- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow had still seen no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons as the US and Israel \u200cpursue their attack. US President Donald Trump has offered various reasons for going to war with Iran. On Monday, in his most extensive public comments so far, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Russia warns Iran war could spur nuclear weapon race in broader Middle East - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russia warns Iran war could spur nuclear weapon race in broader Middle East - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MOSCOW(National Times)- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow had still seen no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons as the US and Israel \u200cpursue their attack. US President Donald Trump has offered various reasons for going to war with Iran. On Monday, in his most extensive public comments so far, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-03T17:15:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-03T17:15:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-670x370-20-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/\",\"name\":\"Russia warns Iran war could spur nuclear weapon race in broader Middle East - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-670x370-20-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-03T17:15:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-03T17:15:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-670x370-20-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-670x370-20-1.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Russia warns Iran war could spur nuclear weapon race in broader Middle East\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Russia warns Iran war could spur nuclear weapon race in broader Middle East - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/121786\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Russia warns Iran war could spur nuclear weapon race in broader Middle East - Nation","og_description":"MOSCOW(National Times)- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow had still seen no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons as the US and Israel \u200cpursue their attack. 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