MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. Russia is ready to host talks between Iran and Gulf countries, and the United States is mulling an agreement on cooperation in the nuclear sphere with the Saudis. Meanwhile, Budapest looks set to keep its projects with Moscow. These stories topped Monday's headlines in Russia.

 

Izvestia: Russia offers to host talks between Iran, Gulf countries

The confrontation between the United States and Iran has plunged the Middle East into chaos again as the two sides trade strikes daily, with sites in the Persian Gulf also being targeted. Amid this escalation, Russia has offered a lifeline, saying it is ready to provide a venue for Iranian-Arab dialogue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov told Izvestia. In the absence of any public negotiation process, Moscow has maintained contacts with all the mediators in the conflict, including Pakistan and Turkey. As experts suggest that the parties will only increase their strikes in the coming weeks, the offer could be especially valuable.

Earlier, Tehran called on the United Nations to prohibit Gulf nations from providing the United States with bases for military strikes. In response, the Arab countries stated that they had never agreed to become a tool in Washington's hands in the war against Tehran. Moscow believes that hosting foreign military infrastructure on their soil is the choice and sovereign right of any country, Alimov stressed. But the UN isn’t taking Iran’s concerns seriously enough, the Russian diplomat added. In the meantime, Tehran is responding to Arab governments’ two-facedness on its own - with the use of force.

Amid daily exchange of strikes, diplomatic communication channels are still working, even as they fail to yield any tangible result. Pakistan, as the key mediator toward peace in the Middle East, has called on both sides to return to the conditions of last month’s memorandum under which Iran and the US should have finalized a ceasefire within 60 days. However, no information about another round of talks in Islamabad has been announced.

Tensions in the Middle East will only escalate in the coming weeks, Yelena Suponina, a political analyst who specializes in the Middle East, told Izvestia. Following the funeral of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been emboldened by the broad support of the population, she emphasized. In addition, the internal political struggle intensifies as the congressional election campaign gains momentum. Therefore, Iran now feels it can put pressure on US President Donald Trump and get a better deal for itself going forward.

Trump has his own elections to worry about - the midterms - and it would behoove him to put an end to the conflict, but with Iran unwilling to play ball, escalation is the name of the game now, for at least the next couple of weeks. The US president will try to move to negotiate before the November elections, but it’s Iran that holds the cards on that front now, the expert concluded.

 

Kommersant: Trump looks to do nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia minus safeguards

US President Donald Trump is weighing signing an agreement on cooperation in the nuclear sphere with Saudi Arabia that would give Riyadh the right to enrich uranium on its own and recycle spent fuel while not requiring any additional safeguards from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). With the potential deal, which is in the billions, the United States seems to be moving away from its traditionally strict demands regarding nuclear non-proliferation, something that worries US legislators and experts.

The US has previously always insisted that its partners sign the so-called Additional Protocol of the IAEA, a clause that is absent from the draft agreement with Saudi Arabia, according to CNN.

US lawmakers and experts interviewed by CNN view this as a big risk, believing that the United States is trading on its principles to make a buck, pointing out that the Saudis have repeatedly warned that they would seek to build a nuclear weapon, should Iran or any other Middle East player possess nukes. Access to sensitive technology without due control from a global independent agency may pave the way for Riyadh’s own military nuclear program, experts argue.

Unlike the United States, Russia has been more amenable to other countries developing a nuclear program for peaceful purposes. It does not directly link the signing of agreements to build nuclear power plants and the signing of the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, while it’s certainly not opposed to that. At that, Moscow advocates for making this protocol universal, as it calls on countries that have not joined it yet to do so.

Leonid Tsukanov, a consultant at PIR Center, noted in an interview with Kommersant that, despite Saudi Arabia’s heightened interest in certain aspects of a clandestine nuclear program, it knows that if it goes the military route, it will change the way the country is viewed globally, with potential negative consequences. "The status of a regional hooligan may affect incoming investment which would put the brakes on the implementation of the Saudi Vision 2030 strategy and undermine Mohammed bin Salman’s course toward overhauling Saudi statehood," the expert explained. "Embracing a military nuclear program would also deal a blow to the economy. Even taking into account the diversification under the Vision [initiative], it has been underpinned by oil production. Consequently, any sanctions blockade of the country could undermine Riyadh's prosperity," he continued.

Moreover, Riyadh potentially obtaining a nuclear arsenal would certainly fuel similar ambitions not only in Iran but also in Turkey, the UAE, and Egypt, the expert warned. "Riyadh understands that the impact from such a drastic change in the regional status quo could be unpredictable, therefore it has refrained from rash steps so far," Tsukanov added. However, "risks of an uncontrolled transformation of the security landscape in the Middle East have significantly grown amid the intensified conflict between the US and Iran," he concluded.

 

Izvestia: Hungarian government says nuke plant project with Russia to remain in place

Budapest is not going to revisit or sever agreements with Russia, including its contracts to build the Paks-2 Nuclear Power Plant or purchase resources, the Hungarian Embassy in Moscow told Izvestia. Earlier, the country’s new defense chief announced that the country was planning to cut ties with Russia, and that former Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto was under investigation over his Russia policy. In May, a new government led by Peter Magyar came to power in Hungary. While the Magyar government is unlikely to quit working with Rosatom or abandon Russian energy purchases, Budapest will ramp down its relations with Moscow.

The Magyar government is unlikely to take drastic steps like halting work with Russia on the Paks-2 NPP, as construction has already begun, and finding a new contractor would delay its launch, Mikhail Vedernikov, leading researcher with the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe said. According to him, To ease pressure from Brussels, Hungary could diversify suppliers of nuclear fuel while keeping Rosatom involved in building the plant, following the example of several Central European countries..

For Hungarian voters, relations with Russia are not a key issue, Financial University associate professor Vadim Trukhachev noted. Magyar is mostly focused on protecting the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia and opposing the EU’s latest migration pact, therefore it is ready to meet the EU halfway on the issue of relations with Russia, but no one should expect it to stop buying Russian oil, the expert told Izvestia.

Hungary largely relies on Russian energy, so breaking economic ties with Russia would run counter to its interests. Budapest does, however, want to return European funding so it may make some concessions to Brussels for this goal. If the EU is trying to get Hungary to completely pivot away from Russia, though, it's not likely to succeed.

 

Vedomosti: How escalation in Black Sea could affect oil supplies

On July 19, two oil tankers, the Asia and the Nissos Ios, were attacked with Ukrainian UAVs during loading operations at single point moorings of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, the CPC said in a statement.

Two days earlier, on July 17, the Nordic Zenith, a 274-meter-long Suezmax class tanker, was attacked with two UAVs as it approached a CPC terminal. The vessel, chartered by American oil giant ExxonMobil, was flying the flag of Liberia.

In a statement on Sunday, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry condemned these attacks and demanded that they be halted. After assessing the damage, the republic will reserve the right to use legal mechanisms to recover damages as a way to protect its interests.

In the week of July 10, the intensity of commercial shipping in the northeastern Black Sea, tankers included, dropped significantly, a historical analysis of data on the Marine Traffic website shows.

The CPC is the key oil export route for Kazakhstan and accounts for about 80% of the country’s supplies, Igor Yushkov, an expert with the Financial University at the Russian government, told Vedomosti. According to him, if the amount of oil pumped through the CPC declines significantly or the pipeline comes to a halt, Kazakhstan’s oil output will invariably shrink.

At present, Russia relies on Black Sea ports for 15% to 20% of its oil exports, Sergey Kaufman, an analyst at Finam, said. Owing to logistical proximity, substantial volumes of oil from Black Sea ports go to Turkey, but China and India too are major markets, Kaufman explained. According to him, Russian companies could reroute up to 50% Black Sea oil supplies to other ports, but that would take time. It would be easier to redirect petroleum exports using railway capabilities, the expert added.

 

Vedomosti: China selling AI globally

On July 20, the World AI Conference wraps up in Shanghai. For the first time, WAIC 2026 was attended by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and a number of foreign leaders, including Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. At that, the key practical result was announced on July 19 when delegates of 29 countries, including Russia, signed an agreement to establish the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO). It aims to "promote fair mechanisms of cooperation between countries with a view to increasing their digital capabilities and developing their own technology and solutions." The new organization will view the UN as the key venue of a global debate on AI.

China has been adamant that security serves as a prerequisite for progress, Sergey Tsyplakov, a professor at HSE University, told Vedomosti. In reality though, like other countries, say the United States, China has prioritized security everywhere over the past few years. While China will perhaps export its AI models on its terms to the Global South, no Indian officials signed the agreement to establish a new organization.

AI development in China is based on cooperation between the government and businesses, Anna Sytnik, an expert at the BRICS-Russia Expert Council, explained to Vedomosti. Meanwhile, Chinese researchers’ lead in the number of scientific articles on AI does not indicate its advantage over the United States, she noted. "The quality of those articles matters much more," she emphasized.

As regards the growing Chinese posture in AI and its influence on Russia’s sovereignty in technology, it makes no difference to Moscow. According to Sytnik, Russia has maintained cooperation with Chinese companies and "the government is well aware of the risks of relying on one ecosystem only, therefore Russia originally developed sovereign models and nobody is abandoning those."

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