The Supreme Leader of Iran Presses Putin for More Assistance After US Strikes
Iran’s foreign minister travels to Moscow to request assistance from President Putin following a US military attack on nuclear sites.
The Iranian supreme leader dispatched his foreign minister to Moscow on Monday to ask President Vladmir Putin for additional Russian assistance following the largest US military operation against the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
Russia concerns that US President Donald Trump and Israel’s public speculation about overthrowing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and changing the regime might plunge the Middle East into chaos.
Although Putin has denounced the Israeli strikes, he has not yet addressed the US raids on Iranian nuclear sites. Last week, he offered Moscow’s assistance as a mediator regarding the nuclear program and urged calm.
Reuters was informed by a senior source that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was scheduled to present a letter from Khamenei to Putin requesting his assistance.
Iran wants Putin to do more to support it against Israel and the US, according to Iranian sources, who stated they are not happy with Russia’s support thus far. The sources did not specify the type of aid Tehran was seeking.
Although the Kremlin stated that Putin would meet with Araqchi, it did not specify the topics of discussion.
According to the state news agency TASS, Araqchi stated that Russia and Iran were coordinating their stances on the present Middle East crisis.
Putin has made several offers to intervene between the US and Iran and claimed to have shared with them Moscow’s proposals for settling the dispute while guaranteeing Iran’s continuous access to civil nuclear energy.
The head of the Kremlin last week declined to address the prospect of Khamenei’s murder by the United States and Israel.
According to Putin, Israel promised Moscow that Russian experts assisting in the construction of two additional reactors at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power project would not be harmed by air attacks.
As a member of the U.N. Security Council with the power of veto and a signatory to a previous nuclear agreement that Trump renounced during his first term in 2018, Russia, a longtime ally of Tehran, participates in Iran’s nuclear talks with the West.
At the same time as Trump is trying to mend his relationship with Moscow, Putin, whose army is engaged in a huge battle of attrition in Ukraine for the fourth year, has not publicly demonstrated much interest in engaging in a conflict with the United States over Iran.
