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The U.S. and Israeli war of aggression against Iran has resulted in the destabilization of the entire Middle East and must end to prevent further destruction and fallout, Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said last week.
“The conflict is not under control and is spiraling out, which we predicted would happen and which causes deep concern. The US-Israeli military gamble in Iran has destabilized the entire Middle Eastern region,” she said, according to RT.
Zakharova said the war’s toll has been immense for the region, between civilian casualties inside Iran and the targeting of energy infrastructure that has caused extensive damage to the environment.
“The hostilities, which evidently pose catastrophic risks – including environmental and radiological – to the region must be immediately stopped. A search for a diplomatic off-ramp must be renewed as soon as possible,” she said, according to the report.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that if the war continues to drag on, one of the key winners would be Russia because of the windfall it would receive in the oil and natural-gas markets because of skyrocketing prices.
The Trump administration on Thursday also lifted sanctions on Russian oil currently at sea in its latest effort to keep oil prices from ballooning even more, according to The New York Times.
“If anyone is ‘winning’ America’s war in Iran, it would be Vladimir Putin. As the United States, Israel, and Iran military strikes cause the price of oil to spike, it’s meant $6 billion more in Russian oil sales,” Sen. Angus King, D-Maine, posted on X.
In the meantime, American troops remain in harm’s way.
The paper reported that it is believed that the easing of these sanctions could add hundreds of millions of barrels of crude to the market.
“This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said.
There have been claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been assisting in Iran’s war effort.
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence used to target American forces stationed in the region.
John Healey, the British defense secretary, told a press conference last week that Putin could be helping with drone tactics, including one strike that hit a hangar in Cyprus.
“We will update you and appropriately publish any findings from that when we’ve got them, but I think no one will be surprised to believe that Putin’s hidden hand is behind some of the Iranian tactics, potentially some of their capabilities as well, not least because one world leader that is benefiting from the sky high oil prices at the moment is Putin,” Healey said, according to the Times of Israel. “It helps him with a fresh supply of funds for his brutal war in Ukraine.”
TRENDPOST: Anyone who cannot see the global implications of the Iran War is blind. (Here’s an X post from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showing him shaking hands with Reza Pahlavi, the imaginary “Crown Prince of Iran” who has been living in exile in the U.S. (See “QATAR: IRAN WAR THREATENS TO ‘BRING DOWN’ GLOBAL ECONOMIES, GULF EXPORTERS COULD SHUT DOWN OIL PRODUCTION” (10 Mar 2026).
Zelensky wrote:” Ukraine truly wants to see a free Iran that does not cooperate with Russia and destabilize the Middle East region, Europe, and the entire world. I am grateful to the Crown Prince for his explicit emphasis on support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Our teams will maintain their communication.”
European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, have told reporters that they will not forget Ukraine, even as the war in Iran expands.
“Let me be very clear: We believe it would be wrong to ease sanctions now, for whatever reason,” Merz said, according to The Times. “We will continue our support for Ukraine. We will not allow ourselves to be deterred or distracted by the war in Iran.”
Trump was asked by Fox News if he believed Putin was assisting the Iranians, and he responded, “I think he might be helping them a bit, yeah. I guess, and he probably thinks we’re helping Ukraine, right?”
Trump continued, “It’s like, ‘Hey, they do it, and we do it, in all fairness. They do it, and we do it.”