US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on 18 June 2025. EPA-EFE/KEN CEDENO / POOL

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he rejected an offer by Vladimir Putin for Moscow to help mediate the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, telling the Russian leader instead that he should “mediate Russia first”.

“I spoke to him yesterday [and] he actually offered to help mediate”, Trump told reporters outside the White House. “I said, ‘Do me a favour — mediate your own. Let’s mediate Russia first, okay?’ I said ‘Vladimir, let’s mediate Russia first, you can worry about this later’”.

The last reported phone call between Trump and Putin took place on Saturday, when the two discussed what the Kremlin called the “dangerously escalating situation” in the Middle East and Putin first offered Russia’s support in “possible mediation efforts” between Israel and Iran.

Trump subsequently indicated on Sunday that he would be “open” to Russia helping mediate the conflict before his comments on Wednesday suggested his stance had changed.

Russia has publicly condemned Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure as “unprovoked” and “unacceptable”, with Putin holding phone calls with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian after Israel carried out surprise airstrikes on targets across Iran on Friday.

Since then, the Russian leader has repeatedly stressed Moscow’s readiness to act as a peacemaker in the conflict.

Speaking to foreign reporters at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Wednesday, Putin said Russia had presented its proposals to Israel, Iran and the US and believed it was possible to “secure Iran’s interests in the field of peaceful nuclear energy and at the same time to address Israel’s concerns about its security”.

“We are not imposing anything on anyone — we are simply discussing how we see a possible way out of the situation”, Putin said. “But the decision, of course, lies with the political leadership of all these countries, primarily Iran and Israel”.

Russia has long attempted to balance its relations with both Israel, which is home to a sizeable Russian immigrant community, and Iran, whose partnership with Moscow has deepened significantly since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In January, Putin signed a broad cooperation pact with Pezeshkian to expand Russia-Iran ties across multiple sectors, including defence, while Tehran has since 2022 provided Moscow with thousands of Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones that Russia has used to carry out mass air strikes on Ukrainian cities.