The Iranian and Russian presidents Ebrahim Raeisi and Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation on Monday to confer on the ongoing developments in Gaza, an official at the Iranian president's office reported.
In a telephone conversation between the presidents of Iran and Russia on Monday, President Raeisi warned about the continuation of crimes by the Zionist regime, Mohammad Jamshidi, the political deputy at the office of the President wrote in a post on his X account.
"The president considered the continuation of the blockade, the killing of women and children, the ground assault on Gaza, and the attack on its elected and legitimate government as laying the basis for a long and broadened war," Jamshidi added.
"In this call, the developments in the Caucasus were also discussed," he concluded.
The presidential office in Iran later issued the official readout of the telephone conversation, saying that at the beginning of the call, Raeisi expressed happiness with the growing trend of bilateral trade relations between the two nations, emphasizing the need to speed up bilateral cooperation, especially in the fields of energy and transportation.
The Iranian president assessed the positions adopted by Russia in condemning the war crimes and genocide of the Zionist regime in Gaza as positive and said that "A look at what is happening in Gaza, it is quite possible that the war could spill over to other regions, and in that case, it will get more difficult to bring the escalated situation under control as time passes. Therefore, we expect all countries, including Russia, as permanent member of the UN Security Council, and international organizations to play a more effective role in stopping the war crimes being committed by the Zionist regime."
Raeisi also considered the approach adopted by the Western countries, especially the United States in recklessly supporting the Zionist regime as an encouraging factor for the Zionists to escalate the violence and continue the genocide in Gaza, blaming the US and other Zionist regime backers' failed regional policy for the crisis.
Emphasizing that stopping the Zionist regime's attacks ASAP today and lifting the blockade on Gaza should be the priority in all efforts related to the Palestinian issue, the Iranian president noted, "Iran's friendship and neighborliness, along with the common approaches of the two sides on the Palestinian issue, can lay a proper ground for consultation and attempts to establish and strengthen peace and stability in the region."
In response to his Russian counterpart's offer for Iran to exercise influence on the Palestinian Resistance groups to stop the conflict and instead their participation in the political process, the Iranian president responded by saying "We have stated many times that supporting Palestine is the priority in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but the Resistance groups themselves are independent in making decisions. Naturally, any action by Resistance groups against Zionist aggression makes sense to everyone, because it is within the framework of legitimate self-defense."
The Russian president, for his part, emphasized that Russia's assessment of the causes behind the current crisis in Gaza is the same as Iran's, adding that there is no justification for the Israeli huge attacks on a densely populated area where more than 2 million people live defenselessly and they should be stopped as soon as possible.
Vladimir Putin stated that carrying out a ground assault in Gaza would come at a heavy price and ramifications in terms of military and humanitarian aspects, explaining more that, "Americans tried to advance their desired strategy to solve the Palestinian issue on their own, but this solution has failed and Russia is also worried about the spillover of the current conflict in Gaza to other areas."
KI/IRN85260600
09:45 - 2023/10/17
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