Iran's Supreme Leader sent his foreign minister to Moscow on Monday to request further assistance from President Vladimir Putin following the largest US military action against the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution, which took place over the weekend.
US President Donald Trump and Israel have publicly speculated about the possibility of killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and of pursuing regime change, a step Russia fears could further destabilize the Middle East.
While Putin has condemned the Israeli strikes, he has yet to comment on the US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. However, last week he called for calm and offered Moscow’s services as a mediator over the nuclear program.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was expected to deliver a letter from Khamenei to Putin, seeking the latter’s support, a senior source told Reuters.
Iran has expressed dissatisfaction with Russia's support so far, according to Iranian sources, and is urging Putin to do more to back it against Israel and the US. The sources did not specify what kind of assistance Tehran desired.
The Kremlin confirmed that Putin would meet with Araghchi, but did not clarify what would be discussed.
Russia and Iran coordinating positions on Middle East escalation
The state TASS news agency quoted Araghchi as saying that Iran and Russia were coordinating their positions regarding the current escalation in the Middle East.
Russia, a longstanding ally of Tehran, plays a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West as a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council and a signatory to the previous nuclear deal, which Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
Putin hesitant to confront US over Iran
However, Putin, whose military is engaged in a protracted war of attrition in Ukraine for the fourth year, has shown little appetite for confronting the US over Iran, especially as Trump seeks to repair ties with Moscow.
Putin has repeatedly offered to mediate between the US and Iran and has shared Moscow's ideas for resolving the conflict, while ensuring Iran's access to civil nuclear energy.
Putin stated that Israel had assured Moscow of the safety of Russian specialists helping to build two additional reactors at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran amid airstrikes.
Russia-Iran relationship has been historically troubled
While Moscow has purchased weapons from Iran for its war in Ukraine and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier this year, their relationship—which spans centuries—has sometimes been fraught.
The partnership deal does not include a mutual defense clause.
Within Russia, there have been calls for the country to support Iran in a manner similar to the way the US has supported Ukraine, including providing air defense systems, missiles, and satellite intelligence.
At the UN Security Council on Sunday, Russia, China, and Pakistan proposed that the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East following the US strikes.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia recalled former US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s argument at the UN Security Council in 2003, when Powell claimed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein posed an imminent danger to the world due to Iraq’s stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
"Once again, we are being asked to believe the US’s fairy tales, which will once again bring suffering to millions of people in the Middle East. This confirms our belief that history has taught our US colleagues nothing," he said.