By T.J. Muscaro
President Donald Trump confirmed that he had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin during which they discussed the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.
“President Putin called this morning to very nicely wish me a Happy Birthday, but to, more importantly, talk about Iran, a country he knows very well,” Trump said in a post on the social media platform Truth Social. ”We talked at length. Much less time was spent talking about Russia/Ukraine, but that will be for next week.”
Trump went on to say that his talk with Putin lasted about an hour, and they both felt that the war between Israel and Iran should end. He said that he added that Putin’s own war with Ukraine should also come to an end.
“He is doing the planned prisoner swaps – large numbers of prisoners are being exchanged, immediately, from both sides,” Trump said of Putin.
Israel launched a preemptive attack on multiple sites within Iran in the early hours of June 13, damaging key parts of Iran’s nuclear program and killing several members of the regime’s leadership, including the chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami.
“We have no choice,” IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said on the night of the attack. “We are operating against an imminent and existential threat. We cannot allow the Iranian regime to obtain a nuclear weapon that would be a danger to Israel and the entire world.”
The strike triggered a retaliatory attack against Iran later that day, with both sides suggesting that the exchange of fire would continue for several days.
The Kremlin confirmed that a 50-minute conversation took place between Putin and Trump, and that Putin affirmed previous comments condemning Israel’s preemptive attack on Iran.
“Vladimir Putin condemned Israel’s military operation against Iran and expressed serious concern about a possible escalation of the conflict, which would have unpredictable consequences for the entire situation in the Middle East,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, adding that Trump described the escalating situation as “very alarming.”
Ushakov also said that the two leaders did not rule out the return of negotiations concerning Iran’s nuclear program. The United States was set to begin the next round of talks with Iran in Oman on June 15, but that had been canceled.
“The Russian president recalled that prior to the current rise in tensions, our side had proposed concrete steps intended to find mutually-acceptable agreements during talks between U.S. and Iranian representatives about the Iranian nuclear programme,” Ushakov said.
“Russia’s principled approach and interest in a resolution is unchanged and, as Vladimir Putin noted, we will continue to act based on this.”
The Kremlin also confirmed that Trump reiterated his desire to achieve “the fastest possible end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”
Ushakov also said that both Trump and Putin expressed satisfaction “at their personal relations, which have allowed for them to speak in a business-like manner to seek solutions to issues that are bilateral or on the international agenda, however complex those issues might be.”
According to a Russian state news agency, Putin told Trump that Russia would be ready to continue negotiations with Ukrainians after June 22.
Reuters contributed to this report.
