There was an awkward silence at the Kremlin on Thursday as Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the Israeli war in Gaza but garnered no reaction from his host Vladimir Putin.
Putin had a lot to say about cooperation and the growing bilateral relations with Tehran, but on Gaza, he maintained silence. While Russia has been vocal in its call for a cease-fire and hosted a Hamas delegation following the Oct. 7 attack, it has refrained from lambasting Israel and looked the other way as the Israeli military occasionally struck in the last two months targets in Syria —a country closely allied with Moscow —.
Iran's Raisi was hoping for more. He said in his remarks from Moscow that it was crucial for the world to address the war in Gaza, and accused Israel of "committing genocide."
Raisi lamented "the martyrdom of over 6,000 Palestinian children in the hands of the criminal Zionist regime."
