MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the country’s help mediating the Middle East conflict before the most recent escalation in the region broke out, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
"Since the very beginning of this story, before the start of the military standoff, President Putin offered various forms of mediation and services that could have helped to reduce tensions," Peskov said at a news briefing.
However, despite all of this, Peskov continued, Putin cannot be viewed yet as a mediator in the settlement of the ongoing developments in the Middle East.
"We need to have multilateral understanding, multilateral coordination. Therefore, we should be a little patient under the current circumstances," he added.
The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.