Trump And Putin Seem To Favour Each Other Amid Iran Conflict

Donald Trump has decided to ease oil sanctions after a one-hour call with Vladimir Putin about the Iran war.

The US president announced on Monday that while the US had sanctions on “some countries”, he would “take those sanctions off until the strait [of Hormuz] is up”.

While he did not specify which countries he was referring to, Trump’s declaration came shortly after he had a lengthy chat with the Russian autocrat – who has been trapped under heavy trade sanctions ever since invading Ukraine in 2022.

After the US-Israel strikes on Iran, Tehran retaliated by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz which carries a fifth of the world’s oil supply.

Oil prices have started to rise as a result and there are fears of a global economic shock.

Only on Sunday, Trump said the soaring cost of oil was a “very small price to pay for peace”.

But on Monday evening, he effectively undid years of united work in the west by easing sanctions around Russia’s oil industry, which fuels its war machine.

It is the world’s second-largest oil exporter and holds the world’s biggest reserves of natural gas.

Doing a deal with the US while it tears the Middle East apart is an eyebrow-raising move from Russia, too.

Tehran has been an ally to Moscow for years while it’s been isolated on the world stage, even providing weapons for Russia to use against Ukraine.

Putin also condemned the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the US-Israeli strikes at the start of the war, just over a week ago, as “murder”.

Evidently, Putin has decided to look past that indiscretion so he can benefit from Iran’s decline.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said the conversation between Trump and his Russian counterpart was “frank and businesslike”.

He claimed Putin had “voiced a few ideas aimed at a quick political and diplomatic settlement” of the conflict after speaking to Gulf leaders and Iran’s president.

Meanwhile, Trump offered his assessment of the situation “in the context of the ongoing US-Israeli operation”, according to Ushakov.

They had a “specific and useful” exchange of views and discussed Venezuela “in the context of the situation in the global oil market”.

Trump kidnapped Venezuela’s president and Putin’s ally Nicolas Maduro in January and has since sent US companies in to “restore” its oil industry.

Putin also suggested Russia was prepared to supply oil and gas to Europe.

Trump already gave Moscow a boost last week by granting India a temporary waive to purchase some oil from Russia while its usual supply from Iran is disrupted.

The president also touched on Putin’s ongoing war in Ukraine, claiming they spoke about the “never-ending fight” in the “positive call”.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that Kyiv is ready for US-backed peace talks with Russia “at any moment.

However, Ukrainian officials have pointed out that the US is now distracted with the conflict in the Middle East right now.

The conflict is also expected to reduce the number of weapons available to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia.