The Russian president makes comments as Israel assesses its response to the Iranian missile and drone attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin urged restraint as Israel weighs its response to Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack over the weekend.
Putin made the remarks in a phone call with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday. The leaders discussed what the Kremlin called “retaliatory measures taken by Iran” following an Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on April 1.
Putin called on all parties to refrain from actions that could trigger a new confrontation that would have catastrophic consequences for the Middle East, the Kremlin said.
Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday night in response to the Israeli attack in Damascus that killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers, including two generals.
Putin, in his first publicly released comments on Iran’s attack, said the root cause of the current instability in the Middle East was the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Vladimir Putin expressed hope that all sides would show reasonable restraint and avoid a new round of clashes fraught with catastrophic consequences for the entire region,” the Kremlin said.
“Ebrahim Raisi noted that Iran’s actions were of a forced and limited nature,” the Kremlin said. “At the same time, he emphasized Tehran’s disinterest in further escalation of tensions.”
Raisi thanks Putin
Raisi thanked Russia for its stance regarding Iran’s response to Israel and said that the inaction of the international community and the destructive role of some Western countries forced Iran to carry out the recent operation, according to Iran’s presidency.
Raisi reiterated that any action against Iran’s interests will require a larger-scale response, the presidency said.
Russia, which has established close ties with Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and several Arab leaders, has repeatedly rebuked the West for ignoring the need for an independent Palestinian state within its 1967 borders.
“Both sides stated that the root cause of current events in the Middle East is the unresolved conflict between Israel and Palestine,” the Kremlin said about the call with Raisi.
“In this regard, the principled approaches of Russia and Iran in favor of an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip were confirmed, alleviating the difficult humanitarian situation and creating conditions for a political and diplomatic resolution of the crisis.”
Putin, who visited Khamenei in 2022, congratulated Raisi and all Muslims on the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Iran has provided Russia with a large number of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and drones that Moscow has used to attack Ukraine.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
