Putin agrees to mediate between Iran and US

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to mediate between Iran and the United States in talks concerning nuclear weapons, the state-run Zvezda media outlet reported on Tuesday, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Earlier on Tuesday Bloomberg reported that Russia had agreed to assist US President Donald Trump’s administration in communicating with Iran on various issues, including on Tehran’s nuclear programme and its support for anti-US proxies in the Middle East region.

Separately Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said Iran was one of the topics discussed at recent Russia-US talks in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and that both sides had agreed to hold separate talks on the issue.

Russia confirmed that it had agreed to help facilitate talks between Trump and Iran, including on Tehran’s nuclear programme and its support for regional anti-US proxies. “Officials from the Kremlin contacted the supreme national security council and said Putin wants to mediate and he’s ready to facilitate direct talks between Iran and America,” an Iranian official said.

“They said Trump wants to talk and is preferring it over war but, here, there is a big uncertainty around it after what happened in the White House last week.” The report, picked up by Russian state media, quoted Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, as saying that “Russia believes that the United States and Iran should resolve all problems through negotiations” and that Moscow “is ready to do everything in its power to achieve this”.