Bloomberg is reporting this morning that President Trump has asked for Vladimir Putin’s help in negotiating with Iran over their nuclear program.
They also report that Secretary of State Rubio and others discussed this with Russia when they were in Saudi Arabia last month.
Here’s the report:
Russia agreed to assist President Donald Trump’s administration in communicating with Iran on issues including the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and its support for regional anti-US proxies, according to people familiar with the situation.
Trump relayed that interest directly to President Vladimir Putin in a phone call in February and top officials from his administration discussed the matter with their Russian counterparts at talks in Saudi Arabia days later, people familiar with the matter in Moscow said, declining to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Russia nor Iran have publicly confirmed or denied the request.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to questions sent by Bloomberg 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.”
A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, when asked if Russia had offered to mediate between Tehran and Washington, said only it was “natural” for countries to offer their assistance.
Top US and Russian officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, discussed Washington’s interest in Moscow helping with Iranian issues, during a Feb. 18 meeting in Riyadh, according to people with knowledge of the situation, asking not to be identified as not all details of those talks have been made public.
Russia’s Lavrov later shared details about the US meeting with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi when they met in Tehran, Araghchi said in a televised press conference after the meeting.
Well I wasn’t expecting this when I got up today. I know the US doesn’t speak directly to Iran, but I would have thought that Trump might use a country like Turkey for negotiations with Iran. But Turkey isn’t all that trustworthy to be honest, so perhaps this makes sense. And this will probably help Trump to establish a deeper relationship with Putin as he attempts to stop the war in Ukraine.