Can Russia broker a new US-Iran deal?

Published On 22 Oct 202622 Oct 2026This week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov travelled to Iran, where he met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and several other officials. The visit came on the tail of two meetings between Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 8 and September 1.Media reports have indicated that Moscow has offered to mediate between Washington and Tehran in talks on a possible nuclear deal. Whether these efforts will be successful is too early to judge, but there are several factors that could make Russia a potentially more effective mediator than others.As a major nuclear power and with state-owned nuclear energy giant Rosatom being a leader in the world’s civilian nuclear energy field, Russia is eminently competent in all aspects of the Iranian nuclear programme.Moscow’s general attitude towards that programme has been clear. It supports Iranian ambition to have domestic nuclear energy generation; it is currently building two new units of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr. But it opposes Iranian development or acquisition of nuclear weapons. It certainly doesn’t want nuclear proliferation so close to its borders.Furthermore, Ru...