The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday denounced Israel’s strikes on Iran as “unprovoked military strikes against a sovereign UN member state, its citizens, peaceful cities, and nuclear energy infrastructure.”
“We strongly condemn the military actions undertaken by the State of Israel on the night of June 13, which constitute a clear violation of the U.N. Charter as well as established principles of international law,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“The international community must not ignore such acts, which not only jeopardize peace but also undermine security both in the region and globally,” the Russians demanded.
Russia found the timing of Israel’s strikes to be “particularly cynical” given that nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States are technically still in progress.
“These actions have drastically undermined the progress of painstaking multilateral diplomatic efforts aimed at reducing tensions and seeking solutions to eliminate suspicions and the bias surrounding Iran’s peaceful nuclear program,” the statement said, without detailing what that “progress” might have been.
As President Donald Trump pointed out, the Israeli strike proceeded because the Iranians had grown intransigent and stopped making realistic proposals at the negotiating table in Oman.
“I don’t know if you know, but I gave them a 60-day warning, and today is day 61,” Trump said on Friday. “They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late. It will be too late for them.”
“You know the people I was dealing with are dead, the hardliners,” Trump added. One of Iran’s lead negotiators, Ali Shamkhani, appears to be either dead or critically injured, so Tehran has an opportunity to send a more moderate envoy to Oman if it chooses.
The Russian Foreign Ministry saw no such upside, accusing “Western countries” of provoking a “wave of anti-Iran hysteria” at this week’s meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors, which supposedly resulted in the official censure of Iran that gave Israel diplomatic room to attack.
The Russians professed to believe that “the issue of the Iranian nuclear program cannot and must not be resolved by military means,” but instead through “peaceful, political, and diplomatic efforts.” This was a rather discordant settlement coming from the militaristic government that launched the world’s largest and most brutal extant war of conquest in 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned Israel’s strikes as a violation of “U.N. Charter and the law” in a statement released by the Kremlin on Friday. Putin reportedly spoke to both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian by phone before releasing his statement.
Despite his harsh words for Israel, Putin said he informed Netanyahu of his “readiness to provide mediation services in order to prevent further escalation of tensions.”
Konstantin Kosachev, a close ally of Putin and vice speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said on Friday that Russia would stand beside its allies in Tehran.
“Israel’s actions cannot be justified from a legal, political, military, or moral point of view. The only hope, albeit illusory, of avoiding a full-scale war is a consolidated condemnation of this operation by the international community,” he said.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) suggested on Friday that the Kremlin is worried about losing its last claim to international legitimacy as a “powerful interlocutor with Tehran.” The Russians offered this week to help dispose of Iran’s worrying stockpile of near-weapons-grade nuclear material as part of a peace deal.
“Israel’s military campaign tests Iran’s strategic partnership with Russia, and it potentially deprives the Kremlin of a valuable card when it comes to negotiating with Washington over Ukraine,” RFE/RL noted.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry pointed out that Moscow is also worried about losing its supply of Iranian drones for the war in Ukraine and could be nervous about yet another demonstration of impotence by Iran’s vast arsenal of Russian military hardware.
“We would like to remind you that the Iranian regime supports Russia in its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine and provides Moscow with weapons to kill Ukrainians. Iran is the source of many problems in the Middle East and beyond,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
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