sentences:  The Foreign Minister of Iran Manouchehr Mottaki deemed a new cold war possible and predicted that external powers would suffer as the US and its allies had done in Afghanistan and Iraq.Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi called "for an immediate halt to the clashes" and offer to help.After Russia and its closest allies chose to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Ambassador of Iran to Russia, Seyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi, said in early February 2009 that his nation will not recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence in the near future, "as it can cause war in many areas," but on the other hand he did not rule out eventual Iranian recognition of the independence of the two areas.