Lavrov and Araghchi in New York: Moscow and Tehran Say Iran Crisis Has Only a Diplomatic Solution

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Thursday in New York with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, where the two diplomats agreed that tensions in the Middle East can be resolved only through diplomacy.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement, “current regional and international issues were discussed with particular emphasis on the situation surrounding Iran.” The statement stresses that “there is no alternative to a diplomatic solution of the crisis provoked by the illegal actions of the United States and Israel.”

The meeting comes at a moment when the war launched in February between the U.S. and Israel on one side and Iran on the other has entered its seventh month, while diplomatic efforts intensify on the sidelines of the UN proceedings. During the talks, Lavrov and Araghchi also discussed implementation of the bilateral agreements reached between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Masoud Pezeshkian earlier this month.

Moscow and Tehran have deepened cooperation in recent years: Putin and Pezeshkian signed in 2025 a strategic partnership agreement providing for deeper bilateral ties and closer cooperation in defense, without a mutual-defense clause. Pezeshkian thanked Putin earlier this month for Moscow’s position on the war and said that together Russia and Iran can resist what he called American “unilateralism.”

The Lavrov–Araghchi meeting takes place as multilateral diplomacy moves at a fast pace in New York: Araghchi himself held talks this week with American representatives through intermediaries, while the Iranian president told Fox News that it is the U.S. that must choose whether it wants to end the war.

Source: Reuters