Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Serge Lavrov on Monday, in what appeared to be their first publicly disclosed call since reports that Moscow had floated curbing intelligence-sharing with Tehran as part of a possible bargain with Washington over Ukraine. Russia said the call was initiated by the Iranian side.
UN Security Council push
According to Iranian news agency WANA, Araghchi told Lavrov that Iran would seek an urgent UNSC meeting and asked Moscow to help prevent Washington from using the Security Council against Tehran. He also criticized countries including Bahrain for siding with US policy and increasing pressure on Iran.
The Iranian foreign minister described the March 11 Security Council resolution on the region as a “distortion of reality.” He also urged council members, especially Russia and China, to block what he portrayed as the “misuse” of the body while military action against Iran continues.
Despite their strategic ties to Tehran, Russia and China abstained on March 11 as the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2817 condemning Iranian missile and drone attacks on Gulf states and Jordan. The measure passed 13-0, with neither country using its veto.
Bushehr nuclear power risks
Bushehr featured prominently in Monday’s call after a reported projectile strike near Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant earlier in the week. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s readout, Lavrov said US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, including the Bushehr plant, were “categorically unacceptable,” warning they endangered Russian personnel and risked catastrophic environmental consequences.
The warning came days after Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev called for the area around Bushehr to be treated as an “island of safety” to avoid a radiological disaster. Reuters reported that about 480 Russian personnel remained at the site, though further evacuations were being prepared.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said a projectile struck a structure about 350 meters from the reactor on March 17, but the reactor itself was not damaged and radiation levels remained normal.
Caspian Sea concerns
The Russian and Iranian foreign ministers also voiced concern that the conflict could spill into the Caspian Sea region, particularly after Israel’s first known direct strikes on Iranian naval assets there on March 18.
The five Caspian littoral states, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan, formally treat the basin as “a zone of peace” and bar any non-littoral military presence there under the 2018 Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. The agreement also commits the parties to peaceful dispute resolution and the non-use of force, but unlike a NATO-style collective defense pact, it does not require them to come to one another’s defense.
Awkward intelligence backdrop
The call was also the first publicly known contact between Lavrov and Araghchi since US media reports said Moscow had floated suspending intelligence-sharing with Iran if Washington agreed to halt its own intelligence support for Ukraine. The proposal was reportedly rejected by the United States, while the Russian side later dismissed the story as false and part of a “Western disinformation” effort aimed at driving a wedge between Moscow and its Middle East partners.
Neither the Russian nor Iranian readout mentioned the issue, and it is not clear whether it was discussed during the call. But that omission was notable given the awkward backdrop: the reports suggested that, despite its commitments, Russia was willing to put an important part of its military cooperation with Tehran on the table and “ditch” an important ally for its own benefit.