The White House and the Kremlin have separately confirmed that US President Trump and Russian President Putin had a phone call on Saturday morning. Putin wished Trump a happy 79th birthday and the two leaders discussed the current tensions between Iran and Israel.
In a statement released by the White House, President Trump said that President Putin called him on Saturday morning to congratulate him on his birthday, but more importantly, to discuss Iran, a country Putin is very familiar with. “We had a detailed discussion. Less time was spent on the Russia-Ukraine issue, but we’ll save that for next week.”
“He, like me, believes that the war between Israel and Iran should end, to which I explained, his war should end too, referring to the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” Trump said.
He did not disclose more information about the call.
The Kremlin stated that the call between Trump and Putin lasted for 50 minutes. Putin’s foreign policy advisor, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, mentioned that during the call, Putin briefed Trump on recent dialogues with leaders of Iran and Israel and reiterated Russia’s proposal to seek a mutually acceptable solution to the Iran nuclear issue.
“Vladimir Putin condemned Israel’s military actions against Iran and expressed serious concerns about the possibility of escalation, which could have unpredictable consequences for the entire Middle East situation,” Ushakov told reporters.
Ushakov said Trump acknowledged that the situation in the Middle East is “very unsettling,” but recognized Israel’s attacks on Iranian targets as “effective.” Both leaders expressed openness to returning to negotiations on the Iran nuclear program.
To prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Israel launched a series of large-scale strikes against Iran since Friday, targeting nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories, senior military officers, and nuclear scientists in locations like Tehran. The attacks not only damaged Iran’s nuclear facilities, military bases, and numerous air defense systems but also killed several Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.
According to reports from the Russian news agency RIA, regarding the issue of the Ukraine conflict, Putin informed Trump that Russia is prepared to continue negotiations with Ukraine after June 22.
Ushakov mentioned that Trump reiterated his desire to resolve the conflict as soon as possible. As per Ushakov’s explanation, Putin briefed Trump on the implementation of the agreements reached in the Istanbul talks between Russia and Ukraine, including the exchange of prisoners.