Iran appeals to Putin for greater backing after devastating US military strikes

In a significant diplomatic move, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dispatched Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to Moscow on Monday to appeal for increased support from Russia following the most substantial U.S. military strike on Iranian soil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The visit comes amid heightened fears of a broader regional conflict after U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli officials openly discussed the possibility of eliminating Khamenei and pursuing regime change in Tehran — scenarios that Moscow strongly opposes, warning such actions could push the Middle East into chaos.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced the recent Israeli airstrikes on Iran, he has remained notably silent on the U.S. bombardment of Iranian nuclear facilities. However, just last week, Putin urged all sides to exercise restraint and reiterated Russia’s readiness to serve as a mediator in de-escalating the nuclear standoff.

A senior source told Reuters that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was due to deliver a letter from Khamenei to Putin, seeking the latter’s support.
Iranian sources said Iran has not been impressed with Russia’s support so far, and the country wants Putin to do more to back it against Israel and the United States. The sources did not elaborate on what assistance Tehran wanted.

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The Kremlin said that Putin would receive Araqchi but did not say what would be discussed.
Araqchi was quoted by the state TASS news agency as saying that Iran and Russia were coordinating their positions on the current escalation in the Middle East.

Putin has repeatedly offered to mediate between the United States and Iran, and said that he had conveyed Moscow’s ideas on resolving the conflict to them while ensuring Iran’s continued access to civil nuclear energy.

The Kremlin chief last week refused to discuss the possibility that Israel and the United States would kill Khamenei.

Putin said that Israel had given Moscow assurances that Russian specialists helping to build two more reactors at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran would not be hurt in air strikes.

Russia, a longstanding ally of Tehran, plays a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and a signatory to an earlier nuclear deal Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.

Putin, whose army is fighting a major war of attrition in Ukraine for the fourth year, has so far shown little appetite in public for diving into a confrontation with the United States over Iran just as Trump seeks to repair ties with Moscow.