MOSCOW, March 9 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a telephone conversation on Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump, put forward proposals for a quick settlement of the conflict around Iran, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said.
Ushakov, giving an account of the conversation to reporters, said the two leaders also discussed the conflict in Ukraine and noted that Russian gains should prompt Kyiv’s negotiators to move towards a settlement.
He described the entire discussion as “very substantial” and said it would “likely have practical significance for further work between the two countries”.
Ushakov said Putin “expressed several thoughts aimed at a quick political and diplomatic end to the Iranian conflict, including contacts that have taken place with leaders of Gulf states, the president of Iran and leaders of other countries”.
He said Trump “offered his assessment of developments in the U.S.-Israeli operation. Let me say that a very substantial and, without doubt, useful exchange of ideas took place.”
Ushakov said Trump believed it was in the U.S. interest to see a “rapid end to the conflict in Ukraine with a ceasefire and a long-term settlement”.
Developments in Ukraine, he said, were characterised by “Russian troops advancing quite successfully. This, as was noted, is a factor that should prompt the regime in Kyiv to finally go down the path of negotiating a settlement to the conflict”.
Ushakov also said the two presidents also discussed the situation in Venezuela in the context of global oil markets.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by Ron Popeski and Alistair Bell)
