Putin agreed to help the US President Donald Trump in nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Bloomberg writes about this, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Trump conveyed his interest to Putin during a phone call in February, and senior officials from his administration discussed the issue with a Russian delegation at talks in Saudi Arabia on February 18.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later shared details of a meeting with US officials with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi when they met in Tehran, according to Araghchi himself.
Neither Russia nor Iran have publicly confirmed or denied reports of Moscow mediating in nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitrii Peskov, responding to Bloombergʼs questions, stated that "Russia believes that the United States and Iran should resolve all problems through negotiations" and that the Russian Federation is "ready to do everything in its power to do this".
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Bahai, during a press conference when asked whether Russia had offered to mediate between Iran and the US, said that it was "natural" for countries to offer assistance in necessary situations.
“Given the importance of these issues, it is quite possible that many parties will demonstrate goodwill and willingness to help resolve various problems,” he said.
Trumpʼs position on Iran
Last September, during the election campaign, Trump said he was open to a new nuclear deal with Iran. At the time, Politico noted that Trumpʼs statements were an attempt to ease tensions with the Iranian government — a week before that, the Republican had been told that Iran was planning to assassinate him.
Trump did not go into details about future cooperation with Iran, but noted that negotiations are needed in any case — because of the threat posed by Iran with its desire to have nuclear weapons.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi said at the time that the country was open to discussing nuclear talks. At the same time, he noted that tensions in the Middle East could make it difficult to resume them.
After winning the US presidential election, on February 4, Trump signed a document that restores "maximum pressure" on Iran to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero and prevent the country from obtaining nuclear weapons.
At the time, he called the document very tough, but also said he was open to an agreement with Iran and expressed his willingness to negotiate with the Iranian leader.
On February 6, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on an international network that funnels revenues from the sale of Iranian oil to the Iranian military, circumventing existing restrictions.
After that, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that he would not negotiate with the new US presidential administration.
He said negotiations with the United States “are not smart, wise or honorable”. At the same time, he did not order the Iranian government, which had been sending signals for months that it was interested in talks, not to engage with Washington.
At the same time, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he was ready to hold talks with the United States as long as they "respect our honor and wisdom and are held on equal terms".
As early as November 2024, Iranian officials were divided on whether Iran could withstand the additional economic pressure. According to one Iranian oil industry official, “the situation could become catastrophic”.
An Iranian diplomat has said the country will withstand US sanctions by deepening its partnership with the Asia-focused Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other alliances, but he said Iran could also step up its nuclear program or threaten oil facilities in the Middle East.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed fears that refusing to negotiate would further damage Iranʼs economy.
What preceded
The Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2015 by the US, UK, Russia, France, China, Germany and the EU. They agreed that the Iranian authorities would give up their nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the Iran nuclear deal and imposed new sanctions against the Iranian regime.
Tehran resumed uranium production after Trump pulled out of the deal. During Joe Biden’s presidency, Iran’s nuclear program, as Axios noted, “made significant progress”. In late December 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran had increased the rate of production of uranium enriched to 60% (uranium enriched to 90% or higher is required for the production of nuclear weapons).
The Biden administration has been in indirect talks with Iran to revive the Iran nuclear deal. Those efforts collapsed in late 2022 when the US accused Iran of making “unfounded” demands related to an International Atomic Energy Agency investigation into unexplained traces of uranium found at undisclosed Iranian sites. In the months that followed, the administration maintained that the Iran nuclear deal was “off the table”.
In July of this year, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Iran could likely produce enough material to create a nuclear weapon in one to two weeks.
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