ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Russian President Vladimir Putin has conveyed Tehran’s position to US President Donald Trump on a possible resolution to the conflict with Washington, according to the Kremlin.
Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met in Turkmenistan on Thursday ahead of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit, discussing bilateral relations and the conflict between Iran and the United States.
The privately owned Russian news agency Interfax quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying that Putin had informed Pezeshkian about “his upcoming phone call with Trump” during one of the two meetings they had at the summit in Turkmenistan.
“After that, in coordination with Pezeshkian, Putin conveyed to Trump the Iranian side’s views on a possible resolution to the conflict,” Peskov said.
Moscow described Friday’s phone call between Putin and Trump positively, with Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov saying that “Putin told Trump that Moscow’s offer to transfer Iran’s highly enriched uranium to Russia remains on the table,” according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.
Ushakov said Putin had emphasized that diplomatic options for resolving the conflict with Iran had not been exhausted and that an agreement with Tehran could and should be reached through negotiations.
During his meeting with Putin on Thursday, Pezeshkian said Tehran remained committed to negotiations with Washington despite repeated attacks, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
“We are in talks, but every time we talk to the US, they attack again. But we will not leave the negotiating table or dialogue,” Pezeshkian said.
The Iranian president said both sides had submitted proposals and that Tehran had amended Washington’s latest proposals. Once finalized, he said, the two sides would meet through existing channels to review them.
The diplomatic efforts come amid growing uncertainty over Washington’s next move after Trump told Rudaw on Friday that he would not rule out attacking Iran before the November midterm elections, a day after saying he would not launch an attack before the vote.
Asked by Rudaw why he had linked a possible attack on Iran to the midterms rather than acting sooner, Trump said: “We will see. They are failing badly, their country is failing badly, their military is defeated, they have no navy, they have no air force, they have 300 percent inflation, and Iran is in very bad shape.”
