Putin Vows to Help End Iran War as Khamenei Sends Message to Moscow

Photo: AFP via Al Jazeera

Iran has taken its case to Moscow. Its security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, met Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday and handed him a message from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, as efforts to end the war with the United States gather pace.

The meeting was confirmed by both sides. Rezaei, who heads Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told Iranian state television afterwards that he and Putin had discussed "important regional issues" and held "significant conversations" about the post-war period and regional security arrangements.

According to Rezaei, Putin condemned the American and Israeli attacks on Iran, called the war unjust and said Russia was ready to help bring it to an end. "Mr Putin said he will do everything he can to help bring the war to an end," Rezaei said, as reported by Iranian broadcaster Press TV. Those remarks come from Rezaei and Iranian state media, and the Kremlin has not repeated them in the same words.

The two men also talked about a gas pipeline from Russia to Iran. The project would ease Iran's gas shortages and let Russian gas reach Iran's neighbours, a deal that would bind the two countries closer together whatever happens in the war.

The message itself remains secret. Rezaei did not say what Khamenei had written, but the Supreme Leader's public position is clear enough. In a written statement on Wednesday, Khamenei said there should not be "even the slightest inclination towards submission" to the United States.

Tehran is holding a hard line in the talks themselves. Rezaei said Iran has given the Americans seven conditions and will neither reopen the Strait of Hormuz nor return to negotiations until they are met. The strait, the narrow waterway through which much of the world's oil passes, has been at the centre of the crisis for weeks.

The diplomacy is moving on several tracks at once. Iranian negotiators have met mediators from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE, Oman and Egypt, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spent the week on the phone with them. In Washington, President Donald Trump met his national security team on Thursday for the first time since the midterm elections, and said a decision on whether to restart full-scale fighting would come soon. We reported on Trump's warning that the US may have to destroy what is left of Iran, and the stakes behind that decision have only grown since.

The war has already spilled across the region's shipping lanes. Five tankers have now been hit in Hormuz, Saudi forces intercepted a Houthi missile fired towards Medina, and navies from South Korea and others have moved patrols closer to the strait. Against that background, Thursday's meeting in Moscow was not a courtesy call. It was Iran lining up its most powerful friend before the next round of decisions.

Putin has offered before to act as a go-between for Washington and Tehran, and the two men had spoken by phone only days earlier. Whether Moscow can turn that offer into a deal is another matter. Russia has its own interests in the region, and a pipeline agreement would give it a lasting stake in Iran's energy future.

Sources

• Al Jazeera: Iran's security chief meets Putin, delivers message from Khamenei
• Arab News: Iran's security chief discusses regional security with Putin

All eyes are now on Washington, where Trump has said his decision on whether to restart full-scale fighting will come soon.

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