Russia condemned Israel on Saturday for killing Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, urging an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon as Moscow's foreign minister suggested an effort was underway to drag Washington into a regional war.
Nasrallah, who headed Iranian-backed Hezbollah for more than three decades, died in a bombardment targeting the group's headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut late Friday.
Israel would "bear full responsibility" for the "tragic" consequences the killing would have for the region, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"We decisively condemn the latest political murder carried out by Israel... we once again insistently urge Israel to immediately cease military action."
At the UN in New York, where an annual gathering of leaders has been dominated by the Lebanon crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was "particularly concerned" by the resurgence of political killings — including Nasrallah's.
"My perception is that there are those who are looking to provoke Iran, to subsequently provoke the United States, and then to unleash a full-blown war in the entire region," he told a press briefing.
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