MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised Iran’s response to U.S. and Israeli aggression, saying the whole world is “amazed” by the Iranian nation’s “courage, heroism and resilience.”
Speaking Thursday at the plenary session of the 23rd annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow, Putin pointed to a deep “bench” of high-level figures in Iran’s administration, armed forces and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, “people ready for self-sacrifice in the name of their people.”
The remarks come months after the United States and Israel launched an unprovoked war of aggression against Iran, assassinating senior political and military leaders while Tehran was engaged in indirect talks with Washington.
Putin called the assassination of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, a tremendous mistake, saying Larijani was “ready to seek mutually acceptable compromises.” 
He added Moscow’s offer to receive Iran’s enriched uranium remains on the table, and expressed hope the Strait of Hormuz would reopen and illegal sanctions lifted.
Separately, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told Russia-1 television in Moscow that the world is moving away from U.S. hegemony and that independent countries must unite against Washington’s “blatant use of force.” 
He pointed to BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as offering “hopes for creating a fairer world based on accepted rules,” adding that Washington “has even turned the dollar into a weapon against all of us.”
Iran, Russia and China, Khatibzadeh said, must stand together against U.S. attempts to impose political and economic dictates on other countries through “blatant use of force.”
“The world is changing,” the Iranian diplomat said, adding that the world was moving away from “American hegemony and its lawlessness.”
He condemned Washington for attacking countries, violating international law, imposing sanctions and seeking to change the political structures of other states.
“We are in a new environment where independent countries have only one choice, and that is to unite against this defiance and lawlessness.”
Khatibzadeh said Tehran-Moscow ties are now pursued at the level of a strategic partnership, citing cooperation in economic, political, security, military and cultural fields.