Photo: Юрий Д.К., via Wikimedia Commons (freely licensed). File photo of the Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow, September 2025, not a photo of Monday's briefing.
Russia warned on Monday that reports of new military action against Iran are a cause for extreme concern, urging diplomacy instead of a return to war — a day before Americans vote in midterm elections that could reshape the politics around the eight-month-old US war with Iran.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing in Moscow that signals that new military action is being planned against Iran are "extremely alarming," according to Breaking The News. "The situation surrounding Iran, which has been subjected to unprovoked aggression by the US and Israel, remains complex," she said, adding that those threatening new attacks should reconsider and calling for intensified diplomatic efforts.
Reuters separately reported on Monday that the Russian Foreign Ministry said reports of new military action against Iran were a cause for extreme concern and that Russia has been calling for increased diplomatic efforts to normalise the situation in the region.
Why the warning landed now
The warning came as a diplomatic track in Doha ended without a breakthrough. Contacts between Iran and the United States to end the war are continuing, Tehran's foreign ministry said on Monday, after days of talks with Qatari mediators ended with altered proposals but no deal.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said the basis of the talks remains a seven-step plan Iran drew up in September to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the US naval blockade on Iran, now condensed so it could be implemented within two days. President Donald Trump rejected the original proposal in September, and Washington has not publicly accepted the shortened version.
Trump has said the United States would not launch new attacks on Iran before Tuesday's midterm elections, but he has not ruled out further military action afterwards. At an Iowa rally on Sunday, he said he may eventually have to give Iran "the hammer," as reported by Kurdistan 24. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Trump has not decided whether to launch new strikes, while preferring a diplomatic solution. Gulf officials, as reported by Kurdistan 24, say Washington has warned them strikes could come as early as November 4. That date has not been confirmed publicly by Washington.
China also weighed in on Monday. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said all parties should focus on political solutions rather than resorting to arms again, after a meeting in Beijing with senior Iranian security official Ali Bagheri Kani, Reuters reported.
The uranium question that will not go away
At the centre of the dispute sits Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Moscow says its offer to take that uranium remains on the table: President Vladimir Putin told Trump in a call on October 9, following his meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Turkmenistan, that the offer stands, the Kremlin said, as reported by Kurdistan 24.
On Monday, Baghaei said Iran will not surrender its enriched uranium, according to Iranian media cited by Kurdistan 24. The two positions — Moscow offering to hold the material, Tehran refusing to give it up — illustrate why the diplomacy has stalled even as both sides say they want a deal.
Moscow has warned against new strikes before. In January, the Russian Foreign Ministry called US threats of new strikes "categorically unacceptable," Reuters reported at the time, and in February Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that any new US strike on Iran would have serious consequences. The Kremlin stressed "dire consequences" if hostilities resumed after a Putin-Trump call in April.
What happens next
Oil markets moved on hopes of diplomacy on Monday, with prices falling nearly 4 percent as the latest round of mediation raised hopes of a solution, Reuters reported. Iranian sources cited by Reuters, however, said they believed a new US attack was still more likely than a deal — a reminder that market optimism is not the same as an agreement.
Three things will decide what comes next. First, whether Washington answers the condensed Iranian proposal, and whether that answer comes before or after Tuesday's vote. Second, whether a follow-up meeting is convened, as officials briefed on the Doha talks have said is possible. Third, whether shipping attacks in the Gulf continue while diplomacy proceeds — a tanker was struck off the Saudi coast late on Sunday, and a separate vessel was reported hit inside the strait.
For now, the confirmed facts are narrow: Moscow has publicly warned that new strikes would be extremely alarming, the Doha round ended without a breakthrough, and contacts are continuing. No new strike has been announced, no deal has been signed, and the question of what happens after the midterms remains unanswered.
Sources: Reuters, November 2, 2026 (via Devdiscourse); Kurdistan 24, November 2, 2026 (citing Breaking The News for Zakharova's briefing remarks). Zakharova's remarks, the Gulf officials' warning of possible strikes from November 4, and Iran's position on its enriched uranium are as reported by the cited outlets and have not been confirmed publicly by Washington.