Putin meets Iran foreign minister
- Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in St. Petersburg on April 27 and said Moscow would do “everything” to help Tehran. - Putin said he had received a message from Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and reaffirmed Russia’s 20-year strategic partnership with Iran. - The visit came as U.S.-Iran talks stalled after a two-week ceasefire announced on April 9. (reuters.com)
Vladimir Putin met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in St. Petersburg on April 27 and told him Russia would do “everything” it could to help Iran. (usnews.com) (en.kremlin.ru) Putin said he had received a message the previous week from Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and asked Araghchi to convey that Russia intended to maintain its strategic relationship with Tehran. Reuters reported that the 20-year partnership agreement between Russia and Iran was sealed last year. (usnews.com) (reuters.com) Araghchi arrived in St. Petersburg after stops in Pakistan and Oman, part of a regional shuttle that Iranian officials said was aimed at consultations on the war and on negotiations with Washington. Iran’s ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, said the two presidents had already spoken three times since the war began on February 28. (en.irna.ir) (al-monitor.com) The meeting came after a two-week cessation of hostilities between the United States and Iran was announced on April 9 through Pakistani mediators. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said then that Moscow was ready to help find solutions and wanted the negotiating process to succeed. (mid.ru) By April 27, those talks were no longer moving. Araghchi said earlier rounds had shown “some progress” but failed because of what he called excessive U.S. demands and the Americans’ “wrong approaches.” (en.irna.ir) (al-monitor.com) Moscow has tried to cast itself as both Iran’s partner and a possible intermediary. Reuters reported that Russia has offered to mediate after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and has repeatedly proposed storing Iran’s enriched uranium, an idea the United States rejected. (reuters.com) The Russia-Iran relationship already runs beyond diplomacy. Reuters said Russia is building two new nuclear units at Bushehr, Iran’s only nuclear power plant, while Iran had supplied Shahed drones for Russia’s war in Ukraine before Moscow localized production. (reuters.com) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the meeting that Moscow wanted the United States and Iran to keep negotiating and that a return to military action was in no one’s interest. That leaves Putin trying to hold two lines at once: backing Tehran publicly while urging the diplomacy not to collapse. (usnews.com)
