Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in St Petersburg ahead of his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, officials said on Monday. Araghchi flew directly to Russia a day after he departed from Islamabad following the collapse of talks with the US delegation on Sunday.
Araghchi’s flight carried the call sign Minab 168, in memory of the children killed in a US-Israeli strike on an elementary school in the city of Minab on February 28.
It is expected that the two leaders may discuss the ongoing situation between the United States and Iran, which has triggered a global energy crisis.
A top Russian lawmaker has said that the US was “clearly unprepared” militarily for a war on Iran because it relied on the “misguided belief” that force could quickly achieve results.
Alexey Pushkov, chairman of the information policy commission of Russia’s Federation Council, said that the US had miscalculated its Iran move and could have been influenced by its experience in Venezuela.
“The kidnapping of [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro and the very, I would say, weak reaction to it from the Venezuelans, who chose to accept American conditions for controlling Venezuelan oil exports, convinced him [Trump] that a precise surgical military operation is a viable tool for forcing a foreign regime to behave as the Americans please,” the senator said.
The lawmaker further slammed the US administration’s grave miscalculation for trying to replicate the Venezuela-style operation in Iran.
He said Iran had been preparing for this war for more than 20 years so that their entire missile bases and military command and control structure are hidden underground.
“And they have been working on all of these plans for a long time, preparing both economically and, so to speak, existentially,” he said.
Also read: Araghchi returns to Pakistan as Trump freezes envoys
Follow us
