Israel’s unexpected missile offensive on Iran on June 13 caught Moscow off guard, disrupting its assumptions about U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations and raising suspicions of a concealed Western strategy to undercut Tehran’s military and nuclear ambitions.
Moscow condemned Israel’s actions rhetorically but failed to offer substantive responses, and many passages in its statement read like descriptions of Russia’s own aggression against Ukraine.
Russia’s strategic partnership with Iran and its loss of influence in Syria and Libya, along with ineffective oil price manipulation, highlight Russia’s vulnerability and declining global status.
Israel’s decision to launch a series of missile and bomb strikes on Iran on June 13 was a shocking surprise for Moscow, where the working assumption had been centered on the presumably protracted U.S.-Iranian talks on the limitations of the nuclear program (see EDM, May 5).
The possibility of an independent Israeli decision appears inconceivable to the Russian leadership, so it likely concludes that the now-suspended talks in Oman were merely a cover-up for the real U.S. strategy of degrading Iranian offensive capabilities and undermining its nuclear ambitions (Kommersant, June 13).
Nobody dares to suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin unwittingly contributed to that supposed ruse by offering to mediate between Iran and the United States, and in the latest phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump,
the Russian autocrat reiterated that offer and shared the content of his conversation with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, while condemning the Israeli strikes (President of Russia, June 13; RBC, June 14).
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