Who are Iran's allies — and will any help after the US strikes?
Iran's foreign minister will hold a 'serious consultation' with President Putin in Moscow on Monday after US strikes on its nuclear facilities.
Seyed Abbas Araghchi said the American attacks were 'outrageous and will have everlasting consequences'. Russia has described them as a violation of international law.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, accused President Trump of starting 'another war' and said the prospect of a US ground operation is now 'looming on the horizon'.
'And now we can say it outright, the future production of nuclear weapons will continue,' he said. 'A number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads.'The US launched co-ordinated airstrikes overnight against three Iranian nuclear sites — Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan — in what Trump described as a 'very successful attack'.
The strikes, widely anticipated after days of mounting tension, came after repeated warnings from Moscow that any direct US action on Iranian soil would amount to a dangerous escalation.
Putin is yet to comment publicly on the strikes but despite fiery rhetoric from members of his government, there has been no signal that Russia is preparing a military response.
Since Israel began attacking Iran on June 13 in an operation dubbed 'Rising Lion', Russian action has been limited to condemnation and an offer to mediate between the two sides.At last week's St Petersburg economic forum, Putin reiterated that Iran had not asked Russia for any military assistance and emphasised that mutual co-operation did not include defence obligations.
The 20‑year strategic co-operation deal signed last year between Moscow and Tehran excluded a mutual defence clause.
Iran's other allies and its neighbours were quick to condemn the US action, warning that it could precipitate all-out war in the Middle East, but they also stopped short of offering any concrete support.
China 'strongly condemned' the attack on Iran, saying it violated 'the purposes and principles of the UN charter and international law', and called for a ceasefire.
Lebanon's Hezbollah, once Iran's most powerful proxy, said on Sunday that it had no immediate plans to retaliate. The militants, themselves decimated after a year and a half of war with Israel, have not launched a single attack since the operation began.The Houthis, in Yemen, offered the strongest pledge of action, saying they supported a previous statement from their armed wing, which threatened US naval vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity.
Specific details of what Iran will request from Russia during the forthcoming talks have not been officially disclosed by either government, but Araghchi could seek to secure the Kremlin's political or diplomatic backing.
Experts said that with resources tied up with the war in Ukraine, Russia is unlikely to be preparing to come to Tehran's rescue. Putin did little to stop the advance of rebels in Syria in December last year who toppled a key Russian ally, Bashar al-Assad, from power.
'Putin will of course fire out a lot of aggressive rhetoric … but he can't do much, ' said Ian Garner, a historian and academic focused on Russian culture and war propaganda. 'It will likely be a case that Putin's bark is very loud but his bite is about as toothless as it gets.'
Fyodor Lukyanov, head of Russia's council on foreign and defence policy, which advises the Kremlin, said that Putin's statements in recent days show he is extremely cautious.
'He has never expressed any assessment of one side or the other, only about the need for negotiations and a peaceful solution,' he said. 'Iran may have expected more. It has supplied the Kremlin with thousands of drones and missiles used in the war against Ukraine.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
30 minutes ago
- BBC News
How the US says it hit Iran's nuclear sites
A continuous flight over 18 hours, multiple mid-air refuelings, and a series of decoys - this is how the mission to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities played out, according to four-star General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the US the full impact of what the US is calling 'Operation Midnight Hammer' is still unclear, a timeline of how the complex mission unfolded was laid out in a Pentagon briefing on Sunday morning, mere hours after the bombers went "in and out and back without the world knowing at all", US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters. It all began just after midnight when Secretary Hegseth joined US President Donald Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and elite Pentagon staff in the Situation Room at the White House to watch as a fleet of aircraft departed an American airbase in rural the cover of darkness, B-2 stealth bombers took off from Whiteman Air Force Base at 00:01 EDT (05:01 BST), according to the ultimate target: Iran's most secure nuclear subsonic jets, which travel just below the speed of sound, flew over the Atlantic Ocean loaded with powerful "bunker buster" bombs capable of penetrating concrete over 18m (60ft) the kind of weaponry needed to hit Iran's nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo, which is buried below a mountain deep underground and considered to be the epicentre of the country's nuclear programme. The US is the only country in the world known to possess this type of weapon. But the world wasn't watching - yet. All eyes were facing west, towards the Pacific Ocean, following reports bombers had been sent to the US island territory of Guam."While the deployment is not being officially connected to discussions around the US joining Israel's war on Iran, few will doubt the link," the BBC wrote at the it was just a ruse - according to the account delivered by the Pentagon - a decoy to distract from the top-secret flights heading straight for Iran over the Atlantic. The planes that flew west over the Pacific were "a deception effort known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders," Gen Caine said."The main strike package comprised of seven B-2 spirit bombers, each with two crew members, proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications," he military planes don't show up on flight tracking websites, making it difficult for the BBC to independently verify the Pentagon's description of the although satellite images can help show the extent of damage at the sites overnight, they can't tell us the exact times when they were the fleet made it to the Middle East, sometime around 17:00 EDT (22:00 BST), it was joined by support aircraft that helped protect the bombers by sweeping in front of them to look for enemy fighters and surface-to-air missile threats, in what Gen Caine called a "complex, tightly timed manoeuvre".But Iranian fighter jets didn't take off and no air defences appeared to fire a shot, according to US officials."Israeli dominance over Iranian airspace primed the pump for American bombers to operate with impunity," Patrycja Bazylczyk, a missile defence expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, told BBC next hour and forty minutes were described by Gen Caine during the Pentagon briefing in a level of detail not normally disclosed to the the briefing provided timings for certain events, the map showing the bombers' journey wasn't a specific flight path and differed slightly in two versions Trump administration has proclaimed the subsequent events as a total victory, claiming the US had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear regime. But the true extent of the damage, and its aftermath, has yet to be Iran has confirmed the attacks, it has minimised the extent of the damage and has not provided a specific account of the sequence of around 17:00 EDT (22:00 BST) US officials say more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles were launched from a US submarine stationed in the Arabia Sea towards the nuclear site near Isfahan, a city of about two million the nuclear facility there is hundreds of kilometres inland, the submarines were close enough to enable the cruise missiles to impact at roughly the same time as the stealthy B-2s dropped their "bunker buster" bombs over the other two nuclear sites, said Dr Stacie Pettyjohn, a defence expert at the Center for a New American all meant that the US was able to provide "a coordinated surprise attack on multiple sites", she told BBC the fleet of bombers entered Iranian airspace, where the US employed several other deception tactics, including more decoys, according to the the air strikes lead bomber dropped two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator weapons - known as MOPs - on the first of several targets at Fordo at about 18:40 EDT (23:40 BST), just after 02:00 in the morning in MOP bomb is able to drop through about 18m (60ft) of concrete or 61m (200ft) of earth before exploding, according to experts. This means that although it's not guaranteed success, it is the only bomb in the world that could come close to impacting the depth of tunnels at the Fordo facility - thought to be 80-90m (262-295ft) below the was the first time the "bunker buster" bombs were ever dropped in a real combat operation. The remaining bombers then hit their targets - with a total of 14 MOPs dropped on Fordo and a second nuclear facility at Natanz, according to the Pentgaon. And at the Isfahan nuclear site, over 200km away from Fordo, the Tomahawk missiles hit their the planes spent 18 hours in the air, all the targets were hit in just about 25 minutes before they exited Iran at 19:30 EDT (00:30 BST) to return to the US, according to the total, about 75 precision guided weapons and more than 125 US aircraft were used, and Secretary Hegseth claimed the mission provided "powerful and clear" destruction of Iran's nuclear evidence of the full scope of the strikes will take time to assess - with more footage needed to see how deep underground the bunker buster bombs were able to penetrate at the key nuclear sites."This was an incredibly complicated and very sophisticated attack that no other country in the world could have performed," Dr Pettyjohn said."Despite the success of the operation tactically, it is unclear if it will achieve the goal of permanently setting back Iran's nuclear program." What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
BBC News
34 minutes ago
- BBC News
What the US and Iran do next could be even more momentous
For decades, the United States and Iran have carefully avoided crossing a dangerous red line into a direct military American president after another held back from deploying their military might against the Islamic Republic for fear of sinking the US into potentially the most perilous Middle East war of the commander-in-chief, who promised to be a president of peace, has crossed this Rubicon with direct military strikes on Tehran's nuclear sites – the most consequential move yet in the second term of a president who has prided himself on breaking all the old an unprecedented moment provoking alarm in capitals the world next move could be even more momentous. Its 86-year-old supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, now reported to be sheltering in a bunker, has spent nearly four decades cautiously playing a long game against his most powerful enemy to protect his most important asset – the Islamic Republic. If he does too little, he will lose face; if he does too much, he could lose everything."Khamenei's next moves will be the most consequential not just for his own survival but for how he will do down in history, " says Sanam Vakil, Director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at think tank, Chatham House."His poisoned chalice is potentially more potent than the one Khomeini drank in 1988," she continues, referring to the reluctant decision of Iran's first revolutionary leader to bitterly accept a ceasefire in the devastating Iran-Iraq war. "This is not a war Iran wants" In the past ten days, intense Israeli strikes have inflicted more damage on Iran's chain of command and military hardware than its eight-year war with Iraq, which still casts a long shadow across Iranian attacks have eliminated many in the top ranks of Iran's security forces along with leading nuclear scientists. America's entry into this conflict has now ratcheted up the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), founded in the aftermath of Iran's 1979 revolution, is defiantly warning of retaliation against the US that would leave it with "lasting regret".But behind a sharp war of words lie urgent calculations to avoid calamitous miscalculation."This is not a war Iran wants," says Hamidreza Aziz, of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. "But we're already seeing arguments by regime supporters that, regardless of the extent of actual damage the US might have inflicted, the image of Iran as a strong country [and] as a regional power, has been shaken so dramatically [that] it requires a response." Every response is risky, however. A direct attack on one of about 20 US bases in the Middle East, or any of the more than 40,000 American troops, would likely trigger major US the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway for a fifth of global oil traffic, could also backfire by upsetting Arab allies in the region, as well as China, the main customer of Iran's own oil. Western naval powers could also be drawn in to protect this major "choke point" and avert significant economic what Iran had regarded as its "forward defence," its network of proxies and partners across the region have all been weakened or wiped out by Israeli assaults and assassinations during the last 20 months of not clear if an acceptable threshold exists for Iran to be seen to return fire without provoking America's wrath, which would allow both sides to pull back from the tortuous relationship was tested at least once before. Five years ago, when President Trump ordered the assassination of IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani with a drone strike in Baghdad, many feared it would spark a vicious spiral. But Iran telegraphed its counter attack through Iraqi officials, targeting sections of US bases which avoided killing US personnel or causing significant this moment is of far greater magnitude. "The US, not Iran, betrayed diplomacy" President Trump, who had repeatedly expressed his preference to "do a deal with Iran" rather than "bombing the hell out of it" now seems to be firmly in Israel's corner. He described Iran as the "bully of the Middle East," bent on building a nuclear bomb – a conclusion not shared by previous US intelligence teams are now analysing in detail the results of what the Pentagon says was the "largest B-2 operational strike in US history". It inflicted "extremely severe damage and destruction" to Iran's main nuclear sites at Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow. Only "bunker-busting" bombs could penetrate the Fordow facility buried deep in a mountain. President Trump is now urging Iran to "come to peace".But Iran now views the US's diplomatic path as surrender too. In Geneva on Friday, where Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his European counterparts, a tough message was conveyed that Washington expected Tehran to reduce its nuclear enrichment to a demand Iran rejects as a violation of its sovereign right to enrich uranium as part of a civilian nuclear now considers President Trump's diplomatic effort, including five rounds of mainly indirect talks conducted by his special envoy Steve Witkoff, to be an elaborate deception. Israel unleashed its military campaign two days before the sixth round of negotiations in Muscat. The US entered the war two days after President Trump said he wanted to allow a two-week window to give diplomacy a it says it won't return to the negotiating table while Israeli and American bombs are still falling."It was not Iran, but the US who betrayed diplomacy," Araghchi told a news conference in Istanbul. During this, he met with foreign ministers of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference who condemned "the aggression of Israel" and expressed their "great concern regarding this dangerous escalation".Iran has also tried to highlight an onslaught against its territory which violates the UN Charter as well as warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency that nuclear facilities should never be attacked, "whatever the context or circumstances". European leaders are also calling for an urgent de-escalation and a path to curb Iran's nuclear programme through mediation, not they also reiterate that Iran cannot be allowed to acquire a nuclear bomb. They regard Tehran's 60 per cent enrichment of uranium, within easy range of 90 per cent weapons grade, as an ominous indication of its intentions."Iran is likely to underplay the damage to its sites and insist its nuclear program has survived these unprecedented attacks," argues Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "The US may over-exaggerate the damage, so the Trump can claim military victory without getting dragged into further strikes." President Trump will be pulled in one direction by Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu, whose own formidable forces will continue attacking Iran to inflict even more damage, triggering yet more Iranian the US leader is also coming under pressure at home from lawmakers who say he acted without congressional authorisation, and supporters who believe he has broken his promise to keep America out of lengthy this moment is widely expected to concentrate the minds of Iran's hardline decision-makers on how to restore deterrence as they try to avoid being targeted themselves."This is the great irony," warns Ms Geranmayeh. "Although Trump has sought to eliminate the nuclear threat from Iran, he has now made it far more likely that Iran becomes a nuclear state." Lead image: A demonstrator holds a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader. Photography credit: Reuters BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You can send us your feedback on the InDepth section by clicking on the button below.
Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Anthony Albanese's government makes spectacular backflip on Iran strikes - just hours after calling for 'de-escalation'
Penny Wong says the government supports the United States' strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, marking a significant shift in tone just hours after Canberra initially stopped short of endorsing the action. 'The world has agreed Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. So yes, we support action to prevent that. And that is what this is,' she said on ABC's AM show. 'The big question is now what? And Australia says, like so many other countries, we do not want escalation and a full scale war and we continue to call for dialogue and diplomacy.' When asked about the legality of the strikes, she said: 'I think we are all clear that Iran … cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. So yes, the government does support action to prevent that." Her comments came just hours after the Albanese government issued a statement that stopped short of supporting the strikes, instead calling for diplomatic efforts to resolve tensions. 'We note the US president's statement that now is the time for peace,' he said. 'The security situation in the region is highly volatile. We continue to call for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy. 'Australians in Israel and Iran and the region should continue to monitor public safety information provided by local authorities, including to shelter in place when required. 'The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will be communicating directly with registered Australians about preparations for assisted departures.'
