Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg as he delivered a message from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, thanking Moscow for supporting Tehran during the conflict with the United States and Israel.
According to Russia’s Sputnik, Putin assured the Iranian minister that Russia would do “everything possible with regional states to quickly restore peace in the Middle East.”
Putin also praised the Iranian people for “courageously defending their sovereignty, and hoped that Iran would pull through this difficult time.”
Araghchi thanked Russia for its support and hailed Tehran’s ties with Moscow. He also reiterated that Iran would withstand the US pressure.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov and Igor Kostyukov, head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency were also present during the meeting.
Amid the stalemate over peace talks with the US, Araghchi has been on a three-nation tour to Pakistan, Oman and Russia.
During the first leg of the visit, the Iranian leader travelled to Pakistan, which has been mediating in the talks between the US and Iran. He met the Pakistani leadership and conveyed Tehran’s position on a potential agreement with the US on ending the war.
He later went to Oman to discuss the regional situation and returned to Pakistan for a transit stop before heading to Russia.
With Pakistan’s mediation efforts not yielding positive results, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was ready to offer “goodwill or mediation services acceptable to both sides” in future negotiations.
“We will be ready to do everything to ensure that peace, a guaranteed peace, ultimately prevails and that there is no return to hostilities”, he added.