Washington has ramped up sanctions on Tehran just weeks after the Islamic Republic signed a strategic partnership with Moscow

Russia is ready to broker talks between the US and Iran, including on Tehran's nuclear program and its regional proxy network, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Bloomberg on Tuesday.

Trump expressed interest in talking to Iran about those issues, both in his phone call to Putin in February and via representatives at the high-level US-Russian meeting in Riyadh just days later, the news agency wrote, citing anonymous officials.

"Russia believes that the United States and Iran should resolve all problems through negotiations," Peskov told Bloomberg when asked about such contact.

Moscow "is ready to do everything in its power to achieve this," he added.

US President Donald Trump returned to his "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran last month, just weeks after Moscow and Tehran signed a landmark strategic partnership agreement. Trump's executive order said that Washington would ramp up sanctions on Iran, aiming to disrupt its nuclear program, conventional missile deployment, and network of regional proxy groups.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has said the country is building up its defenses, citing regular threats from US ally Israel.

"The Israeli regime's FM and other officials keep threatening Iran with military action while the West continues to blame Iran for its defense capability. This is outrageous & irrational," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said last week. Given that Israel is "addicted to aggression and lawless behavior," it is "responsible and essential to maximize our defense capabilities," he stressed.

The day before, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar warned that a "military option" should be on the table to stop the potential weaponization of Tehran's nuclear program.

Israel and the West have long seen Iran's uranium enrichment activities as a secret attempt to develop nuclear weapons - allegations that Tehran has repeatedly denied.

While Trump has touted harsher sanctions, he has also signaled that he is interested in signing a "verified nuclear peace agreement" with Tehran.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has stressed that talks with the US are unlikely to bear fruit, citing the prior nuclear deal Trump unilaterally left during his first presidency.

(RT.com)