Israeli President Shimon Peres has given Russia assurances it is not planning a strike against Iran, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with CNN released on Sunday in which he described such an attack as "the worst thing that can be imagined."
Medvedev said Israeli President Shimon Peres made the pledge at a meeting in August. After the meeting Peres said Medvedev had promised to reconsider the sale to Iran of S-300 anti-aircraft systems that would complicate an Israeli attack.
Israel has hinted it could forcibly deny Iran the means to make an atomic bomb if Tehran continues to refuse to suspend uranium enrichment it claims is for peaceful purposes.
"When Israeli President Peres was visiting me in Sochi recently, he said something very important for all of us: ‘Israel does not plan any strikes on Iran, we are a peaceful country and we will not do this’," Medvedev said in the interview which was posted on the Kremlin’s website.
An attack would lead to "a humanitarian disaster, a vast number of refugees, Iran’s wish to take revenge and not only upon Israel, to be honest, but upon other countries as well.
"But my Israeli colleagues told me that they were not planning to act in this way and I trust them," he said.
Asked about the possible delivery of S-300s, Medvedev said Russia had the right to sell defensive weapons to Iran. He said sanctions are often ineffective and no action should be taken against Iran, except as a last resort.
The chances of an agreement with the United States on a new treaty to reduce strategic offensive weapons by the end of the year remain "quite high," Medvedev said.