‘Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel,’ Trump, Putin agree in call

In a U.S. readout of the two-and-a-half-hour call between the two leaders, the pair “spoke broadly about the Middle East” in order to “prevent future conflicts.”

“They further discussed the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons and will engage with others to ensure the broadest possible application,” the readout states. “The two leaders shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.”

The Kremlin’s readout of the call does not mention Israel explicitly, saying only that the United States and Russia would work to “stabilize the situation in crisis areas” of the Middle East and to “establish cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation and global security.”

Trump has previously said that “Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon” and has imposed a policy of “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic as part of an effort to prevent it from acquiring one.

On March 7, Trump said that the United States was “down to the final moments” with Iran and that there would be “interesting days ahead” for the two countries.

Russia has partnered closely with Iran in recent years, supplying it with the air defense systems that Israel destroyed in October and receiving thousands of Iranian-made drones and missiles that it has used to attack Ukraine.

The International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report in February suggesting that Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to make multiple atomic bombs, though it has not refined it to the 90% purity threshold that is considered to be “weapons grade.”

The bulk of Tuesday’s readouts of the call between Trump and Putin focused on efforts to achieve a ceasefire deal in Ukraine.

The White House and Kremlin said that the two sides had agreed to an “energy infrastructure” ceasefire, with Putin claiming that he had ordered the Russian military to halt attacks on such facilities “immediately.”

Ukraine has carried out strikes on Russian oil, gas and fuel infrastructure as recently as Monday, and the sale of energy has been critical to the Russian economy since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday following the call that he had “skepticism” about the proposal but signaled openness to implementing it.

“If there is a partial ceasefire, this is a positive result,” Zelenskyy said.

The White House said that wider ceasefire negotiations between the United States and Russia over Ukraine would begin “immediately” at an unspecified location in the Middle East.