Diplomatic efforts to end the US-Iran war entered a critical phase on Monday as Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in St. Petersburg for high-level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, even as negotiations between Washington and Tehran appeared to stall over what Iran described as “excessive US demands.”
Araghchi Blames Washington for Breakdown
Speaking after his meeting with Putin, Araghchi was blunt in assigning responsibility for the failure of talks. “It is clear that Iran is standing against the world’s greatest superpower, and they have not achieved a single one of their goals,” he said. “That is why they have requested negotiations, and we are considering it.”
The Iranian foreign minister carried a personal message from Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, to the Russian president — a gesture that underscored the strategic weight of the St. Petersburg summit. Araghchi thanked Russia for its “firm and unshaken” support, calling it a “stable, solid and powerful” alliance.
“We have proven to the whole world that Iran maintains good allies and friends like the Russian Federation,” Araghchi said, seated across from Putin during talks held at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library.
President Putin responded warmly, expressing hope that the Iranian people would navigate what he described as a “difficult period of trials” under new leadership, and pledging that Russia would do “everything that serves your interests.”
“We sincerely hope that, drawing on this courage and desire for independence, the Iranian people will navigate this difficult period,” Putin said, according to Russian state media agency RIA. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also attended the consultations, and had reportedly already signalled Russia’s readiness to act as a go-between in bridging the gap between Tehran and Washington.
Background: A War Now in Its Ninth Week
The conflict, which began on February 28, 2026, has dramatically disrupted regional stability. One of its most immediate economic consequences has been a near-total collapse of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Data from ship-tracking firm Kpler and satellite analytics company SynMax show that only around seven vessels transited the strait in the past 24 hours — a fraction of the roughly 140 daily passages recorded before the war began.
Iran’s parliament is now considering legislation that would formally assign responsibility for the Strait of Hormuz to the Iranian army. The head of the national security commission, Ebrahim Azizi, confirmed that armed forces are already working to prohibit what they call “hostile vessels” from passing through the waterway.
Meanwhile, Iran’s health minister, Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi, reported that 240 medical facilities were struck during US and Israeli attacks, including approximately 50 hospitals and 50 emergency centres — claims that have drawn international concern.
Talks in Islamabad Collapse
Hopes had been pinned on a weekend round of negotiations in Islamabad, Pakistan, but US President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled his envoys’ planned visit, effectively ending that diplomatic channel. On Sunday, Trump struck a dismissive tone, saying Iranian leaders “can come to us, or they can call us” if they want to negotiate.
Analysts, however, cautioned against reading too much into the setback. Experts noted that the impasse represents a slowdown in diplomacy rather than its outright collapse, citing historical precedents where breakthroughs followed prolonged stalemates and back-channel engagement.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty held a phone call with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday, stressing the importance of continuing the negotiation approach. Cairo said it would pursue “tireless efforts in coordination with regional and international partners to push for political solutions.”
Analysts are watching Moscow’s position carefully. Ahmed Helal, managing director of the Gulf region at Washington-based consultancy The Asia Group, argued that Russian and Iranian interests are not fully aligned. “The Russians want this conflict to continue because it’s benefiting them economically, while the Iranians need it to stop for the same reason,” he told Al Jazeera. “Their incentives are misaligned.”
Helal suggested Araghchi’s Moscow visit had multiple objectives: restocking munitions and defence systems depleted during the war, and securing Russian diplomatic cover at the UN Security Council, where Moscow recently vetoed a Bahrain-US resolution against Tehran.
Foad Izadi, an associate professor at the University of Tehran, highlighted Iran’s particular need for Russian air defence technology. “Iran’s air defence systems are not at the level that they need to be,” he said. “Iran is hoping that Russia could help on that issue.”
The Kremlin has publicly denied supplying weapons to Iran, though Western intelligence agencies have reported that Russia agreed to supply drones and share targeting data on US military facilities in the region.
Spillover into Lebanon
The conflict’s reverberations continue to destabilise Lebanon. Israel announced fresh strikes on alleged Hezbollah infrastructure in the Bekaa Valley and across southern Lebanon, with at least 22 people killed in Israeli attacks over the past two days — putting the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah under severe strain.
Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, reiterated that the group rejects direct negotiations with Israel and will not surrender its weapons. In a more alarming development, an unnamed Hezbollah military source told Al Jazeera Arabic that the group would “return to tactics from the 1980s” and deploy suicide squads to prevent Israel from establishing a foothold in occupied Lebanese territory.
Bahrain, meanwhile, announced it had stripped 69 people — including family members — of their citizenship for “expressing sympathy” for Iran’s actions in the war.
In one of the sharpest assessments to emerge from a Western ally, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told students in North Rhine-Westphalia that he saw no clear exit strategy for the United States. “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership,” Merz said, adding that the Iranians were “negotiating very skillfully” and were “clearly stronger than one thought.”
The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) pushed back against any suggestion of faltering resolve, saying in a statement that US forces remain “focused and ready across the Middle East.”
With the ceasefire holding tenuously, the Strait of Hormuz partially blockaded, and diplomatic channels in flux, the coming days will be critical in determining whether the US-Iran conflict moves toward resolution — or deeper escalation.
