In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek on September 1, 2026.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday vowed to match any US move to return to a June deal aimed at ending their war, as he prepares to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a regional summit.
The two allies were due to hold talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, a bloc promoted by Russia and China as an alternative to Western power.
“I state explicitly that if the United States returns to its commitments under the aforementioned Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take reciprocal action,” Pezeshkian said, according to the Iran presidency’s website.
The memorandum aimed at ending hostilities between Tehran and Washington that began in late February, with US and Israeli attacks on Iran that killed former supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
