Donald Trump: We are also negotiating with Russia about the Islamic Republic

Donald Trump, the US president, said on Monday, 19 October 2026, that besides the war in Ukraine, Washington is also negotiating with Russia about the Islamic Republic. The remarks follow DIAR's earlier report on Trump's assessment of Russia's meagre help to the Islamic Republic, and came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made his first trip to Tehran since the war.

Before leaving Washington to attend a campaign event in Kansas, Trump told reporters that Russia could have given the Islamic Republic far more help but has so far given very little, and that Moscow's conduct on this issue has been very good; according to him, this conduct is one of the reasons for negotiating with Russia about the Islamic Republic. Of China, the US president said Beijing could have supported Tehran more, but its help has been very small and perhaps almost nothing. He described this situation as very positive.

Talks on Ukraine and a three-way meeting

Trump said the United States is in the middle of negotiations with Vladimir Putin over Ukraine and does not want to disrupt those talks; he said that if the negotiations produce no result, he could change course. He added that he is also talking with Russia about diesel fuel and, for now, wants the current state of sanctions to be maintained. Asked about a possible meeting with Putin and Xi Jinping, Trump said he has not yet agreed to it but is ready to take part in such a meeting, and suggested that nuclear weapons and disarmament be its focus.

The Islamic Republic alone under American pressure

Trump's remarks came on the day Lavrov met Abbas Araghchi in Tehran and announced the gradual return of Russian specialists to the Bushehr power plant. The Russian foreign minister's trip came after the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, at their meeting in Manama, asked Moscow to rein in the Islamic Republic. Benjamin Netanyahu had also warned the day before that Russia's cooperation with the Islamic Republic harms Moscow itself.

On Sunday, Trump had also linked his refusal to take new action against Russia, on Truth Social, to the Ukraine peace talks and to Moscow not helping the Islamic Republic. His latest remarks show that Washington has turned the Islamic Republic file into part of its larger deal with the Kremlin, a deal in which Tehran's supposed allies are in practice unwilling to pay a price to keep this regime in place.

Trump says Russia and China have given the Islamic Republic almost no help and that Washington is negotiating with Moscow about Tehran.