Kremlin Says Middle East Is Plunging into ‘Abyss of Instability and War’ 

A destroyed building is pictured at the site of an Iranian missile attack in Ramat Gan in central Israel near Tel Aviv, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
A destroyed building is pictured at the site of an Iranian missile attack in Ramat Gan in central Israel near Tel Aviv, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
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Kremlin Says Middle East Is Plunging into ‘Abyss of Instability and War’ 

A destroyed building is pictured at the site of an Iranian missile attack in Ramat Gan in central Israel near Tel Aviv, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
A destroyed building is pictured at the site of an Iranian missile attack in Ramat Gan in central Israel near Tel Aviv, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)

The Kremlin warned on Friday that the Middle East was plunging into "an abyss of instability and war" and said Moscow was worried by events and still stood ready to mediate. 

Russia, which has warm ties with Iran and also maintains close links to Israel, has urged the US not to strike Iran and has called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis around Tehran's nuclear program to be found. 

Asked on Friday if Russia had any red lines when it came to the situation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that countries in the region were the ones who should have their own red lines. 

"The region is plunging into an abyss of instability and war," Peskov said. 

"This war is fraught with (the risk of) geographic expansion and unpredictable consequences. This region is at our borders. It's potentially dangerous for us and we are concerned." 

Although Russia does not border any country in the Middle East its southern North Caucasus region borders a belt of former Soviet republics which in turn border Iran and Türkiye. 

Peskov said that Moscow observed for now that Israel wanted to continue its military action against Iran, but said Russia has lines of communication open with Israel, the US and Iran. 

Peskov said it was hard to predict whether an offer by President Vladimir Putin to mediate in the crisis would be taken up or not, but said that Moscow favored an end to hostilities and a move to diplomacy as soon as possible. 

Russian nuclear energy chief Alexei Likhachev said the situation at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, where hundreds of Russian specialists work, was "normal" and under control. 

The Israeli military said at one point on Thursday that it had struck the Russian-built Bushehr facility, but later said the comment had been made by mistake. Likhachev, head of the state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, said on Thursday that any attack on the plant could cause a Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster. 

On Friday he told reporters in St Petersburg: "We...very much hope that all our signals from yesterday reached the Israeli leadership." 

Likhachev said Russia has just over 300 staff at Bushehr and a total presence of about 500 people, including family members. 



US Service Member Missing After Iran Shot Down Fighter Jet Has Been Rescued

In this US Air Force handout photo released by US Central Command public affairs, a US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft takes off for a mission during Operation Epic Fury on March 14, 2026. (US Central Command and US Airforce Handout / AFP)
In this US Air Force handout photo released by US Central Command public affairs, a US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft takes off for a mission during Operation Epic Fury on March 14, 2026. (US Central Command and US Airforce Handout / AFP)
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US Service Member Missing After Iran Shot Down Fighter Jet Has Been Rescued

In this US Air Force handout photo released by US Central Command public affairs, a US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft takes off for a mission during Operation Epic Fury on March 14, 2026. (US Central Command and US Airforce Handout / AFP)
In this US Air Force handout photo released by US Central Command public affairs, a US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft takes off for a mission during Operation Epic Fury on March 14, 2026. (US Central Command and US Airforce Handout / AFP)

A US service member who has been missing since Iran shot down a fighter jet has been rescued, President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post early Sunday.

The crew member has been missing since Friday, when Iran downed a US F-15E Strike Eagle. A second crew member was rescued earlier.

Trump wrote that the aviator is injured but “will be just fine,” adding that he took refuge “on the treacherous mountains of Iran.”

Trump added that the rescue involved “dozens of aircraft” and that the US had been monitoring his location “24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue.”

The war began with joint US-Israel strikes on Feb. 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened, and hit, civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.

The fighter jet was the first US aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the conflict in late February.

Trump said last week that the US had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two US military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.

The other jet to go down was a US A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.

A frantic US search-and-rescue operation unfolded after the crash of the F-15E jet on Friday, focusing on a mountainous region in Iran’s southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.

Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in the “enemy pilot.” Iran’s joint military command on Saturday said that it also struck two US Black Hawk helicopters Friday, but The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify that.

Trump renews threat

Trump renewed his threats for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy shipments that has been choked off by Tehran, by Monday or face devastating consequences, writing Saturday in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country’s joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the US military in the region.

But Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told The Associated Press that his government’s efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track” after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks between the US and Iran.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that Iranian officials “have never refused to go to Islamabad.”

Mediators from Pakistan, Türkiye and Egypt were working to bring the US and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.

A second US Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday, according to a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation. It wasn’t clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down, or whether Iran was involved.

Iranian state media said a US A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Gulf after being struck by Iran’s defense forces.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.

The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.

“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 US service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.


Russia Evacuates 198 Workers from Iran Nuclear Plant Amid Airstrike

Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Director General Alexey Likhachev arrives to attend the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 01 April 2026. (EPA/Pavel Bednyakov/AP Pool)
Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Director General Alexey Likhachev arrives to attend the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 01 April 2026. (EPA/Pavel Bednyakov/AP Pool)
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Russia Evacuates 198 Workers from Iran Nuclear Plant Amid Airstrike

Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Director General Alexey Likhachev arrives to attend the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 01 April 2026. (EPA/Pavel Bednyakov/AP Pool)
Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Director General Alexey Likhachev arrives to attend the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 01 April 2026. (EPA/Pavel Bednyakov/AP Pool)

Russia started a planned evacuation of 198 workers from Iran's Bushehr atomic plant shortly after a US-Israeli projectile hit near the facility, Russian state media said on Saturday.

This was a third evacuation from the facility in southern Iran on the Gulf coast, which was built with Moscow's help, with about 100 Russian staff remaining there by now.

The area around Bushehr has been struck four times during this war. The latest attack on Saturday saw one person -- a guard at the facility -- killed, but did not damage the plant itself, according to Iranian state media.

"As planned, we began the main phase of the evacuation today," Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom head Alexey Likhachev was quoted as saying by Russia's TASS news agency.

"About 20 minutes after that ill-fated strike, buses set off from Bushehr station towards the Iranian-Armenian border (with) 198 people, to be precise -- this is the largest evacuation," he added.

Likhachev also said that Russia informed the US and Israel about the evacuation.

"The likelihood of a risk of damage or a potential nuclear incident is, unfortunately, only increasing, as has been confirmed by this morning's events," the Rosatom CEO said.

The agency plans to keep only a skeleton staff at Bushehr amid the threat of further strikes.

The Russian foreign ministry slammed the "evil" US-Israeli attack and urged a cessation of hostilities on Iranian nuclear facilities immediately.


Erdogan Says Middle East War Has Caused ‘Geostrategic Impasse’

This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service on April 4, 2026, shows Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) welcoming and shaking hands Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) upon arrival for a bilateral meeting on security at Dolmabahce Presidential Office, in Istanbul. (Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service on April 4, 2026, shows Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) welcoming and shaking hands Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) upon arrival for a bilateral meeting on security at Dolmabahce Presidential Office, in Istanbul. (Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)
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Erdogan Says Middle East War Has Caused ‘Geostrategic Impasse’

This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service on April 4, 2026, shows Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) welcoming and shaking hands Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) upon arrival for a bilateral meeting on security at Dolmabahce Presidential Office, in Istanbul. (Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service on April 4, 2026, shows Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) welcoming and shaking hands Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) upon arrival for a bilateral meeting on security at Dolmabahce Presidential Office, in Istanbul. (Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)

Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the war in the Middle East had led to a "geostrategic impasse", during a telephone conversation with NATO chief Mark Rutte, his office said Saturday.

"President Erdogan said the process started by the intervention against Iran had led to a geostrategic impasse and that the international community had to redouble its efforts to bring an end to this war," said the statement.

Türkiye has attempted to mediate an end to the hostilities, notably through negotiations conducted with Pakistan and Egypt.

Erdogan said his country was also continuing efforts "to reach a peaceful outcome" to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Istanbul Saturday for talks with Erdogan.

A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that the talks would not only be about drone interceptors but also about security cooperation in general.

The Turkish presidency said on X that the talks would focus "efforts towards a ceasefire and a lasting solution."