Russia has offered to assist the Trump administration in brokering a deal with Iran in which Iran would give up its nuclear weapons program and help stabilize the region. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said,  "Russia believes that the United States and Iran should resolve all problems through negotiations," and Russia "is ready to do everything in its power to achieve this."

The idea of using Russia as our interlocutor in discussions with Iran and the possibility of yet another really, really big Iran nuclear deal that would keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power were main items of discussion at the February 18 meeting in Riyadh, where Ukraine's fate was also decided; see Trump Pauses Weapons Financing for Ukraine – RedState and BREAKING: Trump Decides on Ukraine Aid Following Zelensky Implosion – RedState.

Iran’s foreign ministry confirmed the country’s nuclear issue has been discussed by the US and Russia but said nothing will happen without Iranian involvement.  

"(Iran's nuclear issue) has been discussed (between Russia and the US) as an international issue, but what matters is that whatever is to be done about Iran's nuclear issue will definitely not be done without Iran's opinion," said the ministry’s spokesman Esmail Baghaei. 

“Our Russian friends are fully aware of that,” he said at a briefing on Monday. 

US and Russian officials had bilateral talks in February in their most extensive high-level engagement since Moscow launched it’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

After the meeting of the representatives from Moscow and Washington, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov visited Iran – sparking speculation that he briefed officials in Tehran about the talks with the US. 

Does any of this sound familiar?

During Barack Obama's presidency, he also attempted a "reset" with Russia (see OPINION: The Trump Administration Seems to Think THIS TIME We Can Get a Proper Russia Reset). The idea was that if we were super nice, Russia could be wooed toward civilized behavior, which has eluded it for about 1,000 years. The nice Russians would then help keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. This was the reasoning at the time.

Steven Pifer, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, said, “At the end of the day, Russia does not want to see Iran with nuclear weapons."

“So they basically share with the other P5 nations and Germany the interest in trying to freeze Iran’s nuclear program," Pifer said.

Saradzhyan said Russia also feared the U.S. and some of its allies might take military action against Iran if the nuclear talks failed, which would have “a strong destabilizing impact on regional security.”

Moscow, he added, also worried about the possibility of “regime change” in Iran, which would create “another pressure point on Russia in what its leadership sees as a wide-ranging competition with the West for influence over Russia’s neighbors.”

I'm not an authority on this area of the world, but the rationale here sounds rebuttable, if not downright specious.

As I posted earlier today, Trump's abandonment of Ukraine is tied to a reset with Russia and an attempt to woo Russia out of China's sphere of influence (see OPINION: The Trump Administration Seems to Think THIS TIME We Can Get a Proper Russia Reset – RedState).

If there are nearly 30 years of evidence that resetting relations with Russia increases tensions, encourages Russian adventurism, and is rightfully perceived as a sign of weakness, why is Trump pursuing this course of action?

I think the answer lies to the East. Trump has hired people into policy positions who believe Europe is irrelevant and that Russia can be an ally against China. His first choice for National Security Advisor was a denizen of an Obama-affiliated think tank, the Center for New American Security. The same guy, Elbridge Colby, is being opposed by Senator Tom Cotton for undersecretary of defense for policy because he believes Europe doesn't matter, we can live with a nuclear Iran, and China is the only threat.

To wrest Russia from Beijing's orbit and bring about a rapprochement would, according to this worldview, be the geopolitical coup that prevents any danger of World War III. You can also bet that we will make another run at a nuclear treaty with Iran so that we won't be "distracted." And we know how that will turn out. If you are too afraid of "World War III" to confront a rotted-out husk of a failed Third World state, you will definitely find urgent business under your bed when it comes time to confront China.

Nothing about what seems to be Trump's decision to attempt another nuclear deal with Iran makes any sense: politically, militarily, strategically, or logically. So long as Iran has a hostile government and the necessary infrastructure, it has no reason to stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons because they are an insurance policy against any attempt at regime change. Russia's interest in a nuke-free Iran is, in my view, vastly outweighed by convincing Trump that Russia can be a strategic partner, just like Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden were convinced.