by John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with
On Tuesday afternoon the Kremlin announced that President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi “at the Iranian side’s initiative.”
The Kremlin communiqué was posted at 1540 Moscow time. What followed was reported by Raisi’s office at 1808 Tehran time.
There was a lag of two hours between the announcements. The two scripts are very different.
The Kremlin record says: “The presidents discussed in detail the situation in the Middle East, escalated by Israel’s air strike at the Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus and Iran’s retaliation measures. Vladimir Putin expressed hope that all sides will exercise sensible restraint and will not allow a new round of confrontation that may be fraught with disastrous consequences for the entire region.”
“In turn, Ebrahim Raisi noted that Iran’s actions had been forced and limited. At the same time, he emphasised that Tehran is not interested in further escalation of tensions. Both leaders stated that the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict was the root cause of the current developments in the Middle East.”
Then the two presidents agreed it was back to their strategic business. “During the exchange of views on the current issues of Russia-Iran relations, both leaders expressed their mutual intention to promote steady bilateral cooperation across different areas, including the implementation of mutually beneficial infrastructure projects.”
The Iranian president’s record of the conversation was posted by PressTV, Iran’s English-language broadcaster, between 1808 and 1817, Tehran time. Taking into account the 30-minute difference between the two capitals, the Iranian version appears to have been published two hours after the Kremlin communiqué appeared.
According to Raisi’s report, “ ‘What the Islamic Republic of Iran did in response to what happened criminally and in the light of the inaction of the [UN] Security Council, was the best way to punish the aggressor and represented the tactfulness and rationality of Iran’s politicians,’ Putin said. The Russian president said the Israeli regime’s ‘terrorist act’ against the Iranian consulate in Damascus was against all international standards and rules. He also strongly criticized the United States and certain Western countries for creating tension in the region. ‘We believe that the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the main pillars of stability and security in the region.’”
In the PressTV report, Raisi added in his remarks to Putin: “ ‘The destructive role of the US and some western countries and the inaction and inefficiency of international institutions, including the United Nations and the Security Council, in dealing with the aggressive action of the Zionist regime in attacking the Iranian consulate in Syria caused the Islamic Republic of Iran to exercise its right to self-defense.’ Raisi further thanked Moscow for its ‘principled and constructive’ stance against the Israeli aggression in Damascus.”
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