Russia pledged to maintain its political and economic cooperation with Iran during Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Tehran on Monday, as US President Donald Trump welcomed what he described as limited Russian and Chinese support for Tehran.
Trump said Moscow and Beijing had the capacity to provide Tehran with far greater assistance but had so far refrained from doing so.
“Russia could have done a lot more to help Iran. Russia's done very little for Iran,” Trump told reporters on Monday. He said China could also have provided much more assistance and described the limited help from both countries as “a very positive thing.”
Trump's remarks came as Lavrov held talks with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran, where Moscow reaffirmed its commitment to its strategic partnership with Iran while calling for a diplomatic solution to the regional conflict.
At a joint press conference with Araghchi, Lavrov said Russia had no intention of abandoning economic and investment agreements with Iran despite the war.
He said Russian specialists were gradually returning to work at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant and pointed to continued cooperation on energy and transport projects, including the planned Rasht-Astara railway.
Lavrov also said Moscow had provided humanitarian assistance during the war and would continue supplying food to Iran.
Tehran and Moscow call for diplomacy
Araghchi said Iran and Russia agreed that regional disputes should be addressed politically rather than through military action.
“Our shared view is that regional issues have no military solution and must be pursued through political means,” he said.
Araghchi blamed the United States for insecurity and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and called on neighboring countries to work toward a joint security arrangement.
“We welcome any initiative that leads to security from within without the presence of foreign forces, and consider it the right move,” he said.
Lavrov said Moscow was prepared to assist efforts to resolve the conflict and called for the restoration of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
He also reiterated a longstanding Russian proposal for a collective security framework involving Iran and the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Lavrov arrived in Tehran after talks in Bahrain, where GCC countries had pressed Russia to use its influence with Iran to encourage dialogue and help restore security and navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Pezeshkian thanks Russia for wartime support
Pezeshkian thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian government and people for their support during the war in his meeting with Lavrov, according to the Iranian presidency.
He called for faster implementation of agreements between Tehran and Moscow and said Iran was ready to expand political and security cooperation with Russia and China, including through BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Pezeshkian also said Iran would not accept countries imposing their will on others through force and supported resolving regional disputes through dialogue and regional mechanisms.
Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow's willingness to help resolve the conflict and briefed Pezeshkian on his discussions in Bahrain with representatives of countries on the Arabian Peninsula.
The two sides also discussed expanding trade, investment and cooperation on transport, logistics and energy projects.
Iran and Russia have deepened their relationship in recent years. A 20-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty signed by Pezeshkian and Putin in January 2025 covers defense, security, energy, trade and transport, but does not require either country to come to the other's defense.
Russia and China aid under scrutiny
Trump's description of Russian and Chinese support as limited follows months of conflicting accounts over the extent of assistance provided to Iran during the war.
Last week, Trump said he did not believe Russia or China was helping Iran “at all,” while acknowledging that any assistance could be at “a very low level.”
US intelligence assessments from recent months, however, have found that both countries have provided military support to Iran in the form of satellite imagery for targeting and components for weapons, Reuters reported, citing two people briefed on the assessments.
Trump has previously warned Moscow and Beijing against deeper involvement in the conflict. He said in July that he trusted both countries not to help Tehran, while warning that involvement would be “very bad for them.”
Trump also said last month that Chinese President Xi Jinping had assured him Beijing would not support Iran after the US president raised the issue during talks in Washington.
China has remained Iran's dominant oil customer despite US sanctions, providing Tehran with an important source of revenue. Reuters has reported that Iran arranged to acquire Chinese-made air-defense missile systems through a Hong Kong-based intermediary, though Beijing denied the report. US intelligence assessments have also found that China provided Iran with weapons components and satellite imagery for targeting, according to people briefed on the assessments.
Russia, meanwhile, has maintained economic, diplomatic and security cooperation with Tehran while stopping short of entering the war directly.
Lavrov's visit underscored that distinction: Moscow pledged to continue its partnership and economic projects with Tehran while simultaneously presenting itself as a potential intermediary in efforts to end the conflict.
At Monday's press conference, Lavrov said Russia was ready to help find a diplomatic solution, while Araghchi said Tehran and Moscow agreed that the region's disputes could not be resolved militarily.
Iranian military officials warned of a stronger response to any renewed US attack on Monday, as Russia's foreign minister visited Tehran for talks and regional security concerns grew following Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi during an official visit, with talks also planned with President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The visit came as Iranian officials discussed the prospect of renewed fighting with the United States and the country's military capabilities.
Iran threatens US against new attack
The Revolutionary Guards said that Iran would respond more forcefully to any renewed US military action.
“The US entered the war with all its might, and it is certainly not in a position now to start a new conflict that would bring it any new gains,” Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi said on Monday.
Mohebi said most US bases in the region were inactive and American forces had moved hundreds of kilometers away from Iran.
Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Mostafa Izadi said US naval forces had moved approximately 700 kilometers away to avoid Iranian missiles, according to the Guards-affiliated Fars news agency.
Senior Guards adviser Mohammadreza Naghdi separately said Iran's missile facilities had survived heavy bombardment and its strategic stockpiles remained intact.
Germany summons Iranian ambassador
Germany summoned Iran's ambassador on Monday over attempted attacks targeting Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Volker Beck, chairman of the German-Israeli Society.
“Attacks on Jewish life and on those who defend it are something we will not tolerate - anywhere, and especially not in Germany,” the German Foreign Ministry wrote on X.
The ministry condemned Iran's activities and said the attempted attacks would have legal consequences.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar also criticized Araghchi after the Iranian foreign minister accused French President Emmanuel Macron of supporting US military action against Iran.
Sa'ar accused Iran of suppressing protesters at home while criticizing France over its response to unrest.
Regional security concerns grow
Saudi Arabia's Civil Defense said the danger had passed in the southern Najran region after an earlier alert over a potential threat.
The announcement followed a Houthi attack on a Yemeni government military camp in Shabwa province that killed at least 18 people, Reuters reported, citing government and medical sources.
The US State Department urged Americans across the Middle East to exercise heightened vigilance, warning that Houthi attacks could disrupt flights and airspace.
The US Embassy in Riyadh separately warned that Iran and groups supporting it could target American interests overseas.
Economic uncertainty weighs on Iran
The prospect of renewed conflict has also affected economic activity, according to an Iranian lawmaker.
“When conditions are unstable, no one can make decisions about their life and future; they cannot make a deal, invest or take action,” Mohammadmehdi Shahriari, a member of parliament's national security committee, said on Monday.
Shahriari said proposals for negotiations with Washington had been raised and officials should be allowed to formulate a response.
Another lawmaker, Mohammad Rashidi, rejected suggestions that Iran's economy was approaching collapse under US pressure.
Meanwhile, Iran Air chief executive Taher Abdolhay said the national airline had only six operational aircraft despite employing more than 9,000 people, down from a fleet of 40.
Abdolhay cited operational restrictions and air traffic difficulties, adding that the airline had faced obstacles to flights intended to bring medicine into Iran.
The developments featured the competing pressures facing Iran, with officials emphasizing military preparedness and diplomatic engagement as concerns over renewed fighting continue to affect regional security and economic activity.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escalated threats against Iran on Sunday, and Tehran warned of retaliation even as diplomatic efforts continued over the Strait of Hormuz and the wider conflict.
Trump warned that the United States could “soon finish the job” against Iran unless Tehran changed course, while giving Netanyahu his “complete and total endorsement” ahead of Israel’s October 27 election.
“They have been systematically destroyed, both militarily and financially, and unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump suggested Washington could take on the fight itself if Netanyahu failed to remain in power, saying that with the “wrong Leader” in Israel, “America will have to do this work ourselves.”
In a briefing with Israeli journalists on Sunday, Netanyahu said bringing down the Islamic Republic remained a key Israeli objective and that he had directed the country's security agencies to pursue it.
Netanyahu said 90% of the work required to defeat Israel's enemies had been completed, while pointing to Iran's economic crisis and protests as signs of what he described as the government's weakness.
“We must bring this regime down once and for all,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel was prepared to act independently of Washington if necessary.
Responding later to Trump's endorsement, Netanyahu said: “Together we will complete the mission!”
Tehran answers threats
Iranian officials responded with a series of warnings against renewed US or Israeli military action.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi directly challenged Trump's “finish the job” language, saying Iran had emerged stronger from the previous confrontation.
“Want to try your luck again? Be our guest. But be careful; we have unfinished jobs too,” Araghchi wrote on X.
He also accused Netanyahu of seeking to draw the United States into another war to advance his own political interests.
Iran's parliament also approved Mehrdad Akhlaghi Ketabchi as defense minister on Sunday, putting a veteran of the country's missile and aerospace industries in charge of its defense apparatus.
Akhlaghi warned Trump against another US attack, saying Washington should instead focus on getting its forces out of the region safely.
Other Iranian military officials issued similar warnings. Armed Forces Chief of Staff Ali Abdollahi said another attack would draw a response “different from, and more severe than before,” while an IRGC spokesman threatened a devastating response against Israel if Iran's energy infrastructure were targeted.
Diplomacy remains on table
Despite the escalating rhetoric, Tehran said its proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and restarting negotiations with Washington remained available.
Araghchi said Iran's seven-day proposal, first presented in September, remained on the table as Tehran reviewed Washington's response. Under the plan, the strait would reopen on the sixth day and negotiations would begin on the seventh if Washington accepted Iran's conditions.
Iran's conditions include lifting the US blockade on its ports, removing sanctions on oil exports and ending hostilities across regional fronts.
Washington, meanwhile, wants Iran to agree to significant reductions in uranium enrichment, while Tehran wants initial talks focused on restoring security and oil flows through the strait.
The Gulf Cooperation Council also pushed for a diplomatic solution on Sunday during a meeting of its foreign ministers in Bahrain.
The GCC condemned continued Iranian missile and drone attacks against its member states, demanded an immediate end to the attacks and called for the restoration of maritime security and freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
The bloc also called for a return to dialogue and diplomacy, but said any understandings with Tehran should address Iran's nuclear and missile programs, drones and support for proxies, with GCC states involved in negotiations affecting their security.
Tensions persist at sea and across region
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy said an oil tanker struck a naval mine south of the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, causing an explosion and fire in its engine room. The Guards warned that vessels switching off their navigation systems while transiting the waterway would be classified as “hostile vessels.”
Separately, UK Maritime Trade Operations said a southbound tug northeast of Khor Fakkan in the UAE was struck by two unknown projectiles, damaging the vessel and causing one minor casualty. The tug continued on its route.
The regional confrontation also continued around Saudi Arabia. The GCC condemned escalating Houthi attacks and reaffirmed its collective support for Riyadh.
Egypt said it was prepared to provide “all necessary and possible forms of support” to Saudi Arabia. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had sought parliamentary authorization on Saturday for the military to help defend the kingdom if Riyadh requested assistance.
Iran's parliament speaker said a "Persian Gulf Data Authority" was coming and urged regional governments and investors to withhold resources from AI companies involved in military operations, amid Tehran threats against digital infrastructure across the region.
"The Persian Gulf Data Authority is coming," Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X Sunday.
"To governments, funds, and firms in the region: you are kindly advised to give no resources to any AI or data company aiding invasions or killing children. No finance, equity, land and energy."
Ghalibaf did not explain how the proposed authority would operate, what powers it would have or how Iran could enforce restrictions on companies operating elsewhere in the region.
The name echoes the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), which Iran established to administer shipping permissions and tolls for vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with the Revolutionary Guards.
Ghalibaf did not say whether the proposed data authority would be linked to that body or follow a similar model for asserting control over regional digital infrastructure.
His remarks followed a series of warnings by senior Iranian officials and hardliners about targeting digital infrastructure across the Persian Gulf.
Hardliners threaten regional digital infrastructure
Last week, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, warned that undersea communications cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities could become targets if war with the United States and Israel resumed.
"If war breaks out, many cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities, valued at $2 trillion, will be within range," Rezaei said, according to Iranian state media.
He said American technology assets in the United Arab Emirates and around the Strait of Hormuz had not yet been included among Iran's targets but could be struck in a renewed conflict.
The following day, Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of the hardline Kayhan newspaper and the supreme leader's representative at the publication, endorsed Rezaei's warning.
In an article titled "Well Done, Brother Mohsen!", Shariatmadari called for using undersea fiber-optic cables running through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz to pressure Washington and its allies.
He claimed that damaging the cables could disrupt more than 80 percent of commercial, banking, military and AI-related communications, an estimate that has not been independently verified.
The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency also backed threats against AI infrastructure, arguing in an article titled "Why Is Artificial Intelligence on the Target List?" that attacks on AI centers could undermine US technological competition with China, deter investment and put pressure on American stock markets.
Shariatmadari had previously urged Iran's military and Islamic Revolutionary Guards on September 3 to disrupt or sever international fiber-optic cables beneath the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
In May, Tasnim proposed imposing licensing and annual renewal fees on foreign operators of undersea internet cables passing through the strait.
It also called for major technology companies, including Meta, Amazon and Microsoft, to operate under Iranian law and proposed granting Iranian companies exclusive control over cable maintenance and repairs.
Previous threats against technology companies
Iran's Revolutionary Guards had already threatened major American technology companies operating in the Middle East during the war earlier this year.
On March 31, the IRGC published a list of 18 companies, including Microsoft, Google, Meta, Apple, Oracle, Nvidia and the UAE-based artificial intelligence company G42, warning that their regional operations could be targeted.
The Guards accused American technology and AI companies of assisting US military operations against Iran and warned employees to leave their workplaces.
The threats followed Iranian drone attacks in early March that damaged Amazon Web Services data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Amazon said two facilities in the UAE were directly struck, while a nearby drone strike caused physical damage to its infrastructure in Bahrain.
The company reported structural damage, power disruptions and cloud service outages affecting customers across the region.
The Persian Gulf has become an important hub for American technology companies expanding their cloud computing and artificial intelligence operations, with the UAE among the countries hosting major investments in data centers.
Undersea fiber-optic cables are also critical to the region's digital infrastructure, carrying international internet traffic and supporting financial transactions, cloud computing and government communications.
Iranian support has helped Yemen’s Houthis carry out their most potent and sophisticated attacks yet on Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people briefed on intelligence from Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s anti-Houthi alliance.
The assistance includes help targeting drone and missile attacks, as well as training, intelligence and tactical guidance, according to the report. It has also contributed to rapid Houthi territorial gains in Yemen. The group now controls coastline along its side of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and has attacked Saudi oil tankers, energy facilities and airports.
People briefed on regional intelligence cited by the WSJ said IRGC officers inside Yemen had helped the Houthis deploy missiles and radars threatening the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb.
The report said the Houthis used large numbers of fighters backed by missiles and drones during an offensive launched in early September, seizing the Red Sea port city of Mokha and territory around Bab al-Mandeb after catching Saudi-backed Yemeni forces off guard.
A person with forces opposing the Houthis cited by the WSJ said the group showed greater sophistication than in previous fighting, combining infantry assaults with missile and drone attacks, including first-person-view drones guided by fiber-optic wire.
Another anti-Houthi official cited by the newspaper said IRGC officers were on the front lines helping direct drone and missile attacks.
Danny Citrinowicz, a former head of the Iran branch for Israeli defense intelligence, said the operational relationship between Tehran and the Houthis was “very, very strong.”
“Iran has a major interest in the Houthis’ success,” he said, describing the relationship as strategic cooperation rather than a simple patron-client arrangement.
Senior Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti rejected allegations of Iranian military involvement, saying such claims exaggerated Tehran’s role and ignored the group’s own development of its capabilities.
“Iran does not interfere in Yemeni affairs,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said last month, describing the Houthis as “entirely independent actors who make their decisions based on their own interests.”
A UN panel of experts found in 2024 that the Houthis had established joint operations rooms in Lebanon and Iraq to coordinate activities.
Iran spent years building influence in Yemen through Hezbollah recruiters and Revolutionary Guards officers, a former Yemeni pro-democracy activist told Iran International, and is now using the Houthis to carry the war to Saudi Arabia and its Western allies.
Baraa Shiban, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London who took part in Yemen’s 2011 uprising and later negotiated with the Houthis, told Iran International’s Eye for Iran podcast that Tehran’s involvement began long before the group became a major regional force.
His account comes as Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports and energy infrastructure have opened another front in the wider war, threatening aviation and trade routes already disrupted by the confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz.
“I think we’re entering phase three,” Shiban said, describing what he sees as Tehran’s strategy of extending the economic cost of the war to US allies.
Iran, he argued, had kept the Houthis in reserve as a strategic asset until it needed them. Their attacks now serve Tehran’s interests while advancing the group’s own ambitions inside Yemen.
From democracy conferences to an IRGC handler
Young Yemenis who took part in the 2011 Arab Spring were invited to conferences in Lebanon that were presented as discussions of democratic reform, Shiban said. Those who went found that Hezbollah operatives were behind them.
Activists receptive to Iran’s revolutionary ideology were introduced to a Revolutionary Guards officer working in Lebanon under the alias Abu Hadi, he said, and some went on to Tehran.
“We were calling it the Arab Spring. The Iranians called it the Islamic Awakening,” he said. Tehran, he said, wanted to present Yemen’s uprising as an extension of Iran’s 1979 revolution.
Shiban identified the officer as Hassan Irlou, who in 2020 became Iran’s ambassador to the Houthi authorities in Sanaa, a post the United States said was held by a Quds Force official. Irlou died in December 2021.
Hezbollah ran much of the operation at first, Shiban said, before Revolutionary Guards personnel took a more prominent role.
The recruitment reached beyond political activists to women invited to conferences in Iran, some of whom came back converted to the Islamic Republic’s ideology. Shiban said he was shocked by one woman he knew as very liberal, who had protested alongside him and returned from Iran repeating Tehran’s case for crushing the Syrian revolution.
“She has absorbed that propaganda of what the Iranians were saying about the Syrian revolution and why they need to kill all of those protesters until the last one, given this woman herself was protesting with us,” he said.
People drawn into these networks went on to help set up the Houthis’ political bureau in Sanaa, Shiban said. Iran International could not independently verify the full extent of the recruitment he described.
Talks rejected
The account has new weight after Saudi Arabia disclosed on Thursday that the Houthis had rejected an invitation to negotiations in Oman in July.
Riyadh had sought talks to settle outstanding differences before the fighting escalated, Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Rayed Krimly said.
The Saudi-led coalition said the Houthis had attacked King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh 20 times in October. At least 19 people have been killed in the recent attacks across the kingdom, according to Saudi officials.
Yemen analyst Fatima Alasrar said on X that the Houthis’ refusal reflected Tehran’s timetable rather than an effort to resolve their long-standing demands over airport access, and warned that Iran could keep leverage through the Bab el-Mandeb strait even if it reached a deal with Washington over Hormuz.
The Houthis also have their own aims, among them consolidating control over Yemen and forcing Saudi Arabia to end its support for rival Yemeni forces.
A second strategic chokepoint
The war has put Bab el-Mandeb, the narrow passage between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, at the center of the regional confrontation.
Iran saw the leverage that disrupting Hormuz gave it and wanted the same at a second shipping route, Shiban said. “It saw how valuable and important the Strait of Hormuz was and it wanted to add another choke point.”
The consequences are visible inside Yemen. On Thursday, Houthi missiles struck the presidential palace compound in Aden, killing five people, according to Yemeni authorities. Houthi advances around Taiz have intensified fighting and displacement.
The escalation could prove costly for Tehran, Shiban said, having already antagonized Saudi Arabia and pushed Yemen’s internationally recognized government toward wider war. But Iran’s leaders appear willing to take that risk, he said, on the calculation that Western governments will hesitate to act decisively.
“I think right now they’re counting on the United States is going to be hesitant,” he said.
Even a long confrontation could suit Tehran, he said, if it raises the economic pressure on the Persian Gulf states and strains their ties with Washington.
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