Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Iran’s president Thursday as part of a blitz round of Middle East diplomacy that also included visits to United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in efforts to raise Moscow’s profile as a power broker in the region. Putin has cast the Israel-Hamas war as a failure of U.S. diplomacy and suggested Moscow could be a mediator, thanks to its friendly ties with both Israel and the Palestinians. “It’s very important for us to exchange views of the situation in the region, particularly regarding the Palestinian situation,” Putin said as he welcomed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the start of their talks in Moscow. Raisi emphasized the need to quickly stop the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, declaring that “a child is killed there every 10 minutes.”
