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MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday spoke out against Moscow’s key ally Iran suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), after Iranian lawmakers voted in favor of halting work with the UN nuclear agency.
“We are interested in continuing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA, so that everybody respects Iran’s repeated statements that Iran does not have and will not have plans to develop a nuclear weapon,” Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow.
The decision by Iranian lawmakers, taken after a 12-day war that saw Israeli and US strikes on nuclear sites, still requires the approval of Iran’s Guardian Council, a body empowered to vet legislation.
Lavrov said the decision was of “an advisory nature” to Iran’s executive branch.
Moscow provides crucial backing for Tehran but did not swing forcefully behind its partner even as the United States launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend.
Russia and Iran signed a milestone strategic agreement earlier this year, but it does provide for mutual assistance in the case of aggression.
Iran is Russia’s second close ally to come under pressure in the Middle East in recent months, after Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria was toppled last December.
It could be a sign that Russia’s influence in the region is waning, as Moscow has to relocate resources and divert attention to its Ukraine offensive, according to Nikita Smagin, an independent expert on Russia-Iran relations.
Russia “is potentially losing its status as a superpower, at least as it perceived in the Middle East,” he told AFP, adding that “its allies are being simply knocked out of the game, one after another.”

JERUSALEM: Israel’s opposition leader on Thursday criticized US President Donald Trump for saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial should be canceled, warning him against interfering in internal affairs.

Trump on Wednesday described the case against Netanyahu as a “witch hunt,” echoing the Israeli premier’s dismissal of the corruption charges which he has flatly rejected.

In a message on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the Netanyahu trial “should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero,” after the end of a 12-day war with Iran.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said in an interview with news website Ynet: “We are thankful to President Trump, but... the president should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country.”

Lapid, of the center-right Yesh Atid party, backed a statement by one of Netanyahu’s coalition allies, Simcha Rothman of the far-right Religious Zionism party, who called for Trump to stay out of the court case.

“It is not the role of the president of the United States to interfere in legal proceedings in the State of Israel,” said Rothman, who chairs the Israeli parliament’s judicial affairs committee.

Rothman, a vocal critic of what he argues is judicial overreach, however said that “the management of Netanyahu’s cases is transforming the image of the State of Israel from a regional and global power into a banana republic.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the leader of another far-right party in Netnayhua’s coalition, branded the trial as politically motivated.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it was “distorted, unreasonable, contrary to the basic sense of justice” to continue Netanyahu’s trial at war, backing Trump’s call to drop the charges against the Israeli leader.

Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. During his current term since late 2022, his government has proposed a series of far-reaching judicial reforms that critics say were designed to weaken the courts.

In the trial that has been delayed many times since it began in May 2020, Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing.

In a first case, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewelry and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favors.

Two other cases allege that Netanyahu attempted to negotiate more favorable coverage in two Israeli media outlets.

Netanyahu has requested multiple postponements in the proceedings, most recently citing the ongoing war in Gaza since April 2023, later in Lebanon and earlier this month in Iran.