Russia has maintained a delicate balancing act in the Middle East for decades, trying to navigate its warm relations with Israel even as it has developed strong economic and military ties with Iran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday after Israel pelted Iran with a series of strikes.

By Andrew Osborn and Alexander Marrow (Reuters) -Russian leader Vladimir Putin told Iran's president over the phone on Friday that Moscow condemned Israeli actions against Tehran, and in a separate telephone conversation told Israel's prime minister that only diplomacy could resolve issues around Iran's nuclear programme.

US President Donald Trump on Saturday (local time) revealed that he received a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin on his 79th birthday and and talked about the war between Israel and Iran, which both leaders agreed "should end.

Salem predicts that this attack may push Iran to make a deal with the U.S, "the outlines of which might be that Iran accepts to forgo enrichment inside Iran, with a big deal with the U.S. and the U.S. lifts sanctions on Iran and that could obviously lead to a sudden and rapid decline in oil prices, so one has to keep that in mind."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in separate telephone conversations on Friday, told Iran's president that Moscow condemned Israel's actions against Tehran and told Israel's prime minister that questions around Iran's nuclear programme could only be solved through diplomacy.

Israel's attack on Iran is a "blueprint" for how World War Three would unfold, according to Anthony Glees, an academic in security and defence and a lecturer at the University of Buckingham

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke separately with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 13, amid a sweeping Israeli air assault on Iran that killed top military officials and targeted the country's nuclear infrastructure.