Moscow, Jan 15, IRNA ,
The head of the Modern Iranian Studies Center in Russia called the raid by US forces of the Iranian consulate in Erbil, Iraq, and arrest of some of its staff as "international burglary."
Radzhab Safarov told reporters on Sunday the raid was part of a Washington strategy to incite Tehran to make radical moves.
He added that the US government, by storming the consulate and confiscating its equipment and other properties, had acquired a pretext for increasing tensions with Tehran.
The Russian expert believed there was no justification of any kind for such move against an entity representing a sovereign state and member of the United Nations.
Safarov also believed Iran would not act so as to exacerbate tensions with a country with which it has differences.
US forces in Iraq Thursday morning attacked the Iranian consulate in Iraq's northern city of Erbil and took away six of its Iranian staff, documents and equipment. One of the staff, a domestic employee, was released Friday.
The Russian Foreign ministry strongly condemned the move against existing international conventions.
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