{"id":524992,"date":"2026-03-07T16:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524992\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T16:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:31:10","slug":"putin-calls-pezeshkian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524992\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin Calls Pezeshkian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday. In its readout of the call, the Kremlin said Putin expressed condolences over the deaths of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, members of his family, and senior Iranian military officials, and reaffirmed Russia\u2019s call for an \u201cimmediate cessation of hostilities,\u201d a rejection of force as a solution, and a swift return to political and diplomatic efforts.<\/p>\n

The call came as Moscow faces growing questions<\/a> about how much it can do for its partners when they come under direct military pressure from the US and its allies. For the Kremlin, the public readout was not only about Iran, but also about signaling that Russia still stands by friendly governments in a crisis. Russia has treated Iran as a key regional partner, especially after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, which further weakened Moscow\u2019s position in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

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Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Analyst Paul Goble told Kyiv Post that Putin does not want to look like \u201ca paper tiger\u201d \u2013 a leader who promises strategic partnership but proves unable or unwilling to come to the aid of friendly regimes when it matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s shown that he can make all the promises he wants about strategic partnerships,\u201d Goble told Kyiv Post. \u201cBut if push comes to shove and the strategic partner is opposed by a powerful country like the United States, he\u2019s not willing and probably not able at this point to come to the aid of that country.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Other Topics of Interest<\/p>\n

Former US Ambassador Warns Russia-Iran Intelligence Ties Could Raise Risks for US Forces<\/a><\/p>\n

Former US Ambassador Richard Kauzlarich warned that reports of Russian intelligence support for Iran could escalate the conflict, even as the White House downplayed its impact.<\/p>\n

As the conflict approached the one-week mark, US media also reported that Russia had been providing Iran with intelligence<\/a>, including the locations of US warships and aircraft in the region.<\/p>\n

Former US Ambassador Richard Kauzlarich told Kyiv Post<\/a> he could not say whether intelligence cooperation was discussed during the Putin-Pezeshkian call, but said he was not surprised by reports of Russian assistance to Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin would see providing information to Iran as just a natural reaction,\u201d Kauzlarich told Kyiv Post. \u201cIf [the US] can do it to Ukraine, [Russia] can do it to Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House, however, downplayed the importance of the reported Russian aid, arguing that it was not changing the military picture. Karoline Leavitt said US forces had rendered the Iranian navy \u201ccombat ineffective\u201d and said retaliatory ballistic missile strikes were down 90% just six days into the campaign.<\/p>\n

Trump struck the same tone on March 6. In remarks to reporters<\/a>, he said Iran\u2019s army, navy, communications, and leadership had been devastated, its air force had been wiped out, and all 32 of its ships were \u201cat the bottom of the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday. In its readout of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-524992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}