Russia has expressed willingness to support the US government in communication with Iran, particularly in regards to the country’s nuclear program and its support for Shia militias in the region, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg.
US President Donald Trump mentioned this interest in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in February and high-ranking officials in the US government discussed the matter with their Russian counterparts during meetings in Saudi Arabia a few days later, the sources said.
A White House official stated that Russia offered to establish contacts without being asked to do so and the conversations are still in their early stages, with it unclear whether they will lead to any progress in US-Iran talks.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskow said in response to a Bloomberg inquiry that Russia believes the US and Iran should resolve all their issues through negotiations and that Moscow is “ready to do everything in its power to achieve this”.
A spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in response to a question about whether Russia had offered to mediate between Tehran and Washington that it is “natural” for countries to offer their support.
Since taking office, Trump has been trying to restore relations with Moscow, which the US had severed after the Ukraine war in 2022. While Trump has been seeking a direct deal with the Kremlin leadership, including a phone call between the two leaders on February 12, both sides have signalled an openness to cooperation on other geopolitical interests, including trade routes and resources in the Arctic.
Senior officials from the US and Russia, including Foreign Ministers Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov, discussed Washington’s interest in Moscow’s help in negotiations over an Iranian nuclear program during a meeting in Riyadh on February 18. Lavrov later shared details of the US meeting with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, who he met in Tehran, as reported in a televised press conference.
On Tuesday, the Russian news agency Interfax quoted Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov as saying that Russia and the US had discussed Iran during the meeting in Riyadh and agreed on separate talks on the topic. Ushakov said there were no further signals from the US, according to Interfax.
Russia and Iran, both heavily sanctioned by the US, have since the start of the Ukraine war significantly strengthened their cooperation in the areas of trade and energy.