Afrasianet - Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, said Israel is planning to spark a conflict between Iran and the United States.

Nebenzia told a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East: "It has become clear that the Israeli leadership is planning to provoke a direct conflict at any cost between its main regional rival Iran and the United States."

Nebenzia also stressed that the Middle East is currently sliding into the abyss of a major war, noting that the UN Security Council is silently monitoring all of this.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Russia was in intensive contact with all parties in the Middle East and that it called on everyone to exercise restraint.

This came in Peskov's press briefing , where he continued, in response to a question about the measures Moscow intends to take regarding the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, and whether Russia will support Iran in the event of a large-scale conflict with Israel: "We have contacts with all parties to the conflict, and we continue to have these contacts and we call on all parties to exercise restraint in light of what is happening, and of course we condemn any actions that lead to the death of civilians."

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard had announced the implementation of an attack against Israel with dozens of missiles, in response to the assassination of the head of the political bureau of "Hamas" Ismail Haniyeh, the Secretary-General of the Lebanese "Hezbollah" Hassan Nasrallah, and the commander of the Iranian Quds Force in Lebanon Abbas Nilfroshan, and the statement of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard said that the ballistic missiles targeted important bases and headquarters in Israel.

The Israeli military said the Iranian attack "will have consequences" and that Israel had plans at the military level.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called Israel's declaration of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres persona non grata a "slap in the face to the organization" and called for a response to the shameful move.

Nebenzia told a UN Security Council meeting: "Today's news of the UN Secretary-General declaring him persona non grata in Israel is unprecedented and extremely rude."

"It's a slap not only to the United Nations, but to all of us. We call on Council members and members of the United Nations to respond to this shameful move."

"I reiterate once again that the Council has the tools to achieve these tasks."

"The only question is the political will. We own it. And do you own it? We urge everyone to answer this question as soon as possible."