Iran’s Foreign Minister reveals Russia helps them in warfare in opposition to the US – after Trump allowed India to purchase Russian oil

Iran‘s Foreign Minister has acknowledged that Russia is helping them ‘in many different directions’ in their war against the US and Israel.

Abbas Araghchi was quizzed on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ about claims Putin has been offering military intelligence to assist the Iranian military in tracking down US military assets.

While Mr Araghchi refused to go into specifics, he said the two countries had a ‘strategic partnership’.

He also sought to challenge the idea that their military cooperation was a recent development that sprang out of the current conflict in Iran. 

Asked by journalist Kristen Welker whether or not the Iranians were receiving help from Russia, Mr Araghchi said: ‘We have a strategic partnership with Russia, military cooperation between Iran and Russia is not something new, it’s not a secret, [the relationship has] been in the past and will be in the future.’

Russia is allegedly providing Iranian forces with information to locate US service personnel, the Washington Post reported on Friday. 

If true, that would mark the first entry of another G8 power into the conflict and open up the risk of the war in Iran spiralling into a global conflagration. 

Three intelligence officers told that newspaper that Russia had supplied Iran with the locations of US military assets, including aircraft and warships. 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said Russia is helping the Iranians ‘in many different directions’

Leaked military intelligence suggested that such ‘help’ could include Russia supplying Iran with the locations of US military assets, including aircraft and warships

However, when Mr Trump was pushed on such claims at an unrelated White House event on Friday, he reacted angrily – telling Fox News reporter Peter Doocy that it was a ‘stupid question’. 

‘We don’t comment on intelligence reports that are leaked to the press,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News the same day. 

‘Whether or not this happened, frankly, it does not really matter because President Trump and the United States military are absolutely decimating the rogue Iranian terrorist regime.’

The allegations of Russian assistance for Iran come after the US Treasury Department said it was granting India a 30-day license to buy Russian oil.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump was looking at ‘unsanctioning’ Russian oil to boost supplies and said the White House is ‘going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market during this conflict.’

Now in its tenth day, the Iran crisis has seen apparent attempts at de-esculation, with President Trump at one stage suggesting a willingness to speak to the Iranian leadership. 

The Middle Eastern country’s President Masoud Pezeshkian also controversially apologised to other countries in the region for bombing raids against them.

Mr Pezeshkian promised neighbouring nations they would be spared from drone and missile attacks as long as they did not allow Israel and the US to use airbases in their territories for bombing raids against Iran. 

He faced backlash for his comments from inside Iran and was swiftly contradicted by both hardline clerics and senior military personnel, who carried out further attacks across the Gulf within hours of his original remarks.

However Mr Araghchi told the ‘Meet the Press’ that Iran had not been ‘attacking our neighbors’ intentionally, but only US installations in those countries – a seemingly misleading claim given that locations such a civilian airport and hotels were among the locations hit by Iranian missiles and drones.

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‘We are attacking American bases, American installations, American assets, which are unfortunately located in the soils of our neighbors,’ he said.

Mr Araghchi also told the show that the Islamic Republic has no plans to increase the range of its ballistic missiles. 

He said Tehran has intentionally limited itself to a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) for its ballistic missiles ‘because we don’t want to be felt as a threat by anybody else in the world.’

The Iranian Foriegn Minister additionally claimed that Iran hasn’t begun any plan to increase that range and that there’s no evidence or intelligence indicating that his country ‘is going to long-range missiles, let alone those missiles who can reach the United States soil.’

Despite Mr Araghchi’s conciliatory words, the newly-appointed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is expected to continue his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s hardline policies towards Israel and the US. 

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has also claimed the country is not looking for a ceasefire in the war with the US and Israel.

He added that ‘aggressors’ should be punished for their actions.

‘If the enemy attacks us from any country, Tehran will respond decisively,’ he told state TV.