Israel was exploiting its advantage, saying it had taken out dozens of surface-to-air missiles in western Iran and killed the intelligence chief of the Islamic Revoluti

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.

The French leader was visiting Greenland — a self-governing part of Denmark with the right to declare independence that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to take over — ahead of a trip to Canada for the G7 leaders' summit.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump for 50 minutes on Saturday, focusing on hostilities between Israel and Iran and calling for efforts to bring them to an end.

An ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that "a full-scale war" in the Middle East is possible following Israel's airstrikes on Iran. Israel launched a series of airstrikes across Iran early Friday,

Russia said Sunday it had evacuated several of its citizens from Iran and halted activity at its Tehran consulate after Israeli attacks on the country sparked retaliatory missile fire towards Israel.

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.

Iran launched dozens of ballistic missiles toward Israel on Friday night in retaliation for Israel's surprise attack early Friday.Israel struck at the heart of the Iran's nuclear program, killing several nuclear scientists as well as high-ranking military leaders,