As tensions escalate in the region due to the US-imposed war on Iran that has claimed over 1,300 lives, Russia's international humanitarian cooperation agency stated on Monday that the Israeli regime targeted the partner Russian House in the Lebanese city of Nabatieh, describing it as an “unprovoked act of aggression.”
In a statement on Telegram, head of the agency, Rossotrudnichestvo, Evgeny Primakov noted that the cultural center was entirely civilian.
"Israeli aviation struck the partner Russian House in the Lebanese city of Nabatieh. The director of the cultural center, Assaad Deia, is alive and safe. These are our good friends; there was no military activity in the cultural center. The strike was not provoked by anything," he said.
He further mentioned that the agency's official representative office, the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Lebanon's capital Beirut, remains in contact with colleagues from the Nabatieh office.
“We regard its destruction as an act of unprovoked aggression,” Rossotrudnichestvo said in an official statement published on Russian social media platform Max.
It also recalled that the Soviet Cultural Center in Syria's capital Damascus was destroyed by a direct hit from Israeli bombs on Oct. 10, 1973, during the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, killing two people.
In a related development, regional tensions have intensified since Feb. 28, when the US and the Israeli regime initiated massive assaults on Iran, resulting in approximately 1,300 deaths, mostly among civilians.
Meanwhile, Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile attacks aimed at the Israeli regime, as well as military installations in countries of the Persian Gulf hosting US assets.