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Putin Ally Holds Talks in Iran as Middle East Teeters on Brink of Wider War

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attends a meeting with graduates of Higher military schools at the Kremlin in Moscow on June 21, 2023. (AFP)
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attends a meeting with graduates of Higher military schools at the Kremlin in Moscow on June 21, 2023. (AFP)
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Putin Ally Holds Talks in Iran as Middle East Teeters on Brink of Wider War

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attends a meeting with graduates of Higher military schools at the Kremlin in Moscow on June 21, 2023. (AFP)
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attends a meeting with graduates of Higher military schools at the Kremlin in Moscow on June 21, 2023. (AFP)

A senior ally of President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran on Monday for talks with Iranian leaders including the president and top security officials as Iran weighs its response to the killing of a Hamas leader.

Russia has condemned the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, in Iran last week and called on all parties to refrain from steps that could tip the Middle East into a wider regional war.

Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia's security council, was shown by Russia's Zvezda television station meeting Rear Admiral Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander who serves as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

Shoigu, who was Russia's defense minister before being moved to the security council in May, will also meet President Masoud Pezeshkian, Zvezda said.

"In Tehran, the secretary of the Russian Security Council is scheduled to meet with the president, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and the head of the General Staff," according to Zvezda TV.

Though Putin has yet to comment in public on the recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East, senior Russian officials have said that those behind the killing of Haniyeh were seeking to scuttle any hope of peace in the Middle East and to draw the United States into military action.

Iran has blamed Israel and said it will "punish" it; Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility. Iran backs Hamas, which is at war with Israel in Gaza, and also the Lebanese group Hezbollah whose senior military commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut last week.

Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran since the start of its war with Ukraine and has said it is preparing to sign a wide-ranging cooperation agreement with Tehran.

Reuters reported in February that Iran had provided Russia with a large number of powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. The United States said in June that Russia appeared to be deepening its defense cooperation with Iran and had received hundreds of one-way attack drones that it was using to strike Ukraine, something Moscow denies.

Russia said last Friday that it joined Iran in condemning the assassination of the Hamas leader and pointing out "the extremely dangerous consequences of such actions". 

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Britain's Starmer Condemns 'Far-right Thuggery' as Unrest Flares again

Protestors throw a garbage bin on fire outside a hotel in Rotherham, Britain, August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
Protestors throw a garbage bin on fire outside a hotel in Rotherham, Britain, August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
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Britain's Starmer Condemns 'Far-right Thuggery' as Unrest Flares again

Protestors throw a garbage bin on fire outside a hotel in Rotherham, Britain, August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
Protestors throw a garbage bin on fire outside a hotel in Rotherham, Britain, August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday condemned what he described as "far-right thuggery" and said perpetrators would face the full force of the law after days of violent anti-immigration protests culminated in hotels being targeted.
Violent protests have erupted in towns and cities across Britain after three girls were killed in a knife attack at a children's dance class in Southport in northwest England last week, reported Reuters.
Misinformation spread that the suspected attacker was an immigrant and an extremist. Police have said the suspect was born in Britain and are not treating it as a terrorist incident.
The protests have spread through cities across the country, including in Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester on Saturday, resulting in dozens of arrests as shops and businesses were vandalized and looted and several police officers were injured.
On Sunday, hundreds of anti-immigration protesters gathered by a hotel near Rotherham, northern England, which Britain's interior minister said was housing asylum seekers.
The protesters, many wearing masks or balaclavas, threw bricks at police and broke several hotel windows, a Reuters witness said, before setting a large bin close to the hotel on fire.
"I utterly condemn the far-right thuggery we've seen this weekend," Starmer said in a statement, adding it was criminal violence and not legitimate protest.
"Be in no doubt, those that have participated in this violence will face the full force of the law."
The National Police Chiefs' Council said 147 people had been arrested since Saturday evening and more would follow in the coming days.
Starmer, who took office a month ago after his Labor Party won a decisive election victory over the long-ruling Conservatives, said residents were in "absolute fear" from the "marauding gangs" in Rotherham.
Local police said 10 officers were injured in Rotherham during confrontations with the crowd of 700 people, some of whom threw planks of wood and sprayed officers with fire extinguishers before smashing hotel windows.
One officer was knocked unconscious and others had suspected broken or fractured bones, police said.
"The mindless actions of those today have achieved nothing other than sheer destruction and leaving members of the public and the wider community in fear," said Lindsey Butterfield, Assistant Chief Constable at South Yorkshire Police.
Sunday's disorder was based in smaller towns than on Saturday, including the northwest towns of Lancaster and Bolton as well as Aldershot, southern England.
Police said they arrested 14 people after a march through Middlesbrough in the northeast resulted in "mindless violence" and a public warning to avoid the town center.
The interior ministry said mosques would be offered extra security under new arrangements after threats against them, including in Middlesbrough.
Members of the public were also urged to avoid the area around a hotel in Tamworth, central England, by local police who said "a large group of individuals are in the area and have been throwing projectiles, smashing windows, starting fires and targeting police. One officer has been injured."
The last time violent protests erupted across Britain was in 2011 when thousands of people took to the streets after police shot dead a Black man in London. Starmer was the country's chief prosecutor at that time.
Community leaders and families of the victims of the murders in Southport, near Liverpool, have criticized the unrest.
"Since Monday, too many people have sought to use the tragedy to create division and hate," a group of faith leaders from Liverpool said in a joint statement.
"It can – and has – left communities in fear and has put people in danger."