Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi at the Kremlin. The meeting came just a day after the United States launched strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

President Vladimir Putin says he has secured Israel’s pledge to safeguard Russian personnel at Iran’s Russia-built nuclear power plant and that he has reached out to both sides to try to end the week-old war.

China and Russia positioning themselves as voices of reason, calling for de-escalation of a conflict the United States is contemplating on entering — these are the optics Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin sought to project during a phone call on Thursday.