Moscow expands ties with Tehran, as Israel weighs retaliatory strike on Iran

Moscow and Tehran are expanding their ties, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday, as Israel continued to weigh a retaliatory military strike on the Islamic Republic.

"We actively work together in the international arena, and our assessments of current events in the world are often very close," Putin told Pezeshkian, according to the TASS news agency, as the two men met in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat.

Pezeshkian, according to IRNA, noted that Iran and Russia had significant complementary capacities and could assist each other. "Our positions in the world are much closer to each other than to others," he was quoted as telling the Russian leader.

Putin was cited by TASS as telling Pezeshkian that economic ties between Moscow and Tehran were on the up. Tehran has deepened its cooperation with Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago, particularly with respect to military weapons, including ballistic missiles and armed drones.

The European Union plans to designate individuals or organizations for sanctions over the Iranian transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia, a high-ranking EU official said on Friday.

"We also expect ... on Monday a first package of designations in the context of Iran's transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia," the official told reporters. He did not immediately provide further details.

Iran criticizes Israel amid escalating regional tensions

Earlier in the day, Pezeshkian said that Israel should "stop killing innocent people," and its actions in the Middle East were backed by the US and EU. Russia has also criticized Israel, which says it is protecting its own security, for bombing civilian areas.

Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Amir-Saeed Iravan, said that Israel is “now a serious threat to international peace and security. Its ongoing aggressive acts of terror and atrocities now threaten to plunge the entire region into all-out war.”

In Laos, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Iran posed a global threat. The “so-called axis of resistance led by Iran looks to create other fronts in different places.  We’re working very hard through deterrence and through diplomacy to prevent that from happening.”

Israel, for the last year, has been battling Iran and its proxies in a multi-front war whose primary focus has been Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen. Iran has twice directly attacked Israel, once in April and again last week.

The IDF-Hezbollah conflict has escalated in the last month, with Israel assassinating the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and top commanders. IDF  troops also entered southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah back from the border.

Israeli Defense Minster Yoav Gallant had been expected to travel to Washington this week to meet with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, but his trip was scuttled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Wednesday, the prime minister spoke with US President Joe Biden, including about Israel’s potential retaliatory strike. The White House and the Pentagon have said that such talks are ongoing. No new date has been set for Gallant to travel to Washington. The Security Cabinet met on Thursday night to discuss the matter, but no decision was taken.

Reuters and Maariv contributed to this report.