Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Iran’s foreign minister on Monday arrived in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin pledged to maintain the two countries’ strategic partnership and to help establish peace in the Middle East, according to Russian and Iranian state media.
The visit follows a whirlwind weekend of diplomacy, with Iran seeking to gain political leverage and foreign backing as talks with the U.S. remain on hold.
But missing from this diplomatic flurry is any sign of a meeting between Washington and Tehran.
During the meeting in St. Petersburg, Putin said he had received a message last week from Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, according to Russia’s state news agency Tass and Iran’s semiofficial Fars, without detailing what the message said.
The Iranian people are fighting “courageously and heroically” for their sovereignty, Tass quoted Putin as saying.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi last week visited Islamabad, the host of direct U.S.-Iran talks earlier this month, and President Trump said he would send a team there for talks. But Araghchi left Pakistan on Saturday and Trump canceled the U.S. delegation’s trip.
Araghchi went instead to Oman — which is situated directly across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran — and met Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al and the Omani foreign minister.
“Important discussions on bilateral matters and regional developments. As only Hormuz littoral states, our focus included ways to ensure safe transit that is to benefit of all dear neighbors and the world,” Araghchi said on social media. “Our neighbors are our priority.”
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said he and Araghchi had a good discussion on the Strait of Hormuz. As coastal states, “we recognize our shared responsibility to the international community and the urgent humanitarian need to free the seafarers held for far too long,” he wrote. “Much diplomacy is required and practical solutions to ensure lasting freedom of navigation.”
Araghchi also spoke by phone with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.
From Oman, he ping-ponged back to Pakistan on Sunday, and on Monday Araghchi arrived in Russia.
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Who has “the cards”?
While in Pakistan, Iranian state media reported Araghchi gave Pakistani mediators a list of “red lines” for negotiations with the U.S., including on nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has repeatedly said the complete eradication of Iran’s atomic program is the key U.S. demand.
Over the weekend, Trump said: “We have all the cards. If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us.”
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, who led the Iranian delegation in the Islamabad talks with the U.S. earlier this month, took to social media to challenge Trump’s comments.
“They brag about the cards. Let’s see,” Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X. He then presented a complicated supply and demand equation that he intended to show the economic challenges faced by the U.S.
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But Iran is also facing the consequences of the U.S. Naval Blockade on its ports. Trump told Fox News on Sunday Iran has just three days of storage left before its oil pipelines explode from pressure, since it’s running out of ships to store it on.
Asked about that timeline, Amena Bakr, the head of Middle East energy at research firm Kpler, told NPR that while Iran is running out of storage, it’s closer to 20 days at current production levels.
Bakr also said Iran has a southern terminal outside the strait of Hormuz that could be used for re-routing oil, provided they can get their ships there and bypass the U.S. blockade.
Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg and Alex Leff in Washington contributed to this report.
