A report that President Trump has contacted President Putin to help initiate diplomatic negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran is raising concerns in some quarters even as prospects for an eventual deal are far from certain. 

Russia agreed to assist the Trump administration in communicating with Iran on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and its support for regional proxies, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. “Russia believes that the United States and Iran should resolve all problems through negotiations,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told the network. 

“What’s old is new again,” an Iran watcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Behnam Ben Taleblu, tells the Sun. “Russia, the country which worked with Western powers to attain the fatally flawed 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, wants back into the mediation game.” 

Iran hawks at Washington are pushing back. “There is zero chance of there being a nuclear agreement,” Senator Graham told Fox Radio. “The nazi ayatollahs want to destroy Israel. President Trump should give Israel the tools to destroy the Iranian nuclear program.”

The nominee to serve as the Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, told the Senate in a confirmation hearing Tuesday that a nuclear Iran equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles would be an “existential” threat to America. Mr. Colby, who in the past opined that America could live with a nuclear Iran, told the Armed Services Committee, though, that Mr. Trump is seeking a “trust-but-verify negotiated agreement” with Tehran.

Negotiations can take a long time. A kinetic attack akin to Israel’s destruction of Iraq’s and Syria’s nuclear facilities is unlikely while diplomats hash out their differences. The prospect of Moscow-mediated talks is further raising alarm bells in Israel.

“The Iranians believe that Russia will deliver America for them,” a Tehran native Iran researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, Beni Sabti, tells the Sun. “A sword is now resting on the Iranians’ throat, so they’ll be happy with Russia’s involvement. Moscow has been antagonistic to Israel for a long time.” 

Israelis are hoping that Iran hawks in the Trump administration might moderate any tendency to go easy on Tehran. In a Tuesday phone conversation with Prime Minister Netanayahu, Secretary Rubio “conveyed that he anticipates close coordination in addressing the threats posed by Iran,” according to a Department of State readout.  

The Iranian strongman, Supreme Leader Khamenei, has been cool on talks with the Trump administration. “Negotiating with America will solve no problem,” he said last month. “The proof? Experience.” Yet, would Tehran be open to diplomacy if Russia — which has long been its advocate in global fora — serves as mediator?

Tehran will be “cautious,” the policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, Jason Brodsky, tells the Sun, adding that despite tightening Russian-Iranian relations in recent years, there is a “history of mistrust” between them. Moscow “could still position itself as an intermediary, but that does not mean there will be direct talks anytime soon, given Khamenei’s recent statements.”

While Mr. Khamenei has not completely closed the door on possible talks, Tehran has insisted on a return to the framework of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. That deal was premised on a temporary suspension of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities in return for a gradual ending of international and American sanctions. 

In his first term Mr. Trump walked out on the JCPOA, and since retaking office he vowed to revive a “maximum pressure” policy on Iran. “We must deny Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon and end the regime’s nuclear extortion racket,” a February 4 national security presidential memorandum stated.

In addition to American pressure, the memo urged a “snap back” at the United Nations, an option that would reverse all JCPOA-related measures and reinstate global sanctions on Iran. “There is no public evidence to date that the maximum Tehran is prepared to give — a JCPOA-style arrangement — will meet the minimum the Trump administration is prepared to accept,” Mr. Brodsky writes. 

Yet, Mr. Trump has stated that he prefers to end the Iran nuclear threat through talks, rather than in a military attack by Israel or America. 

“For many people who were hoping that Trump would be tough on Iran, there was always this concern that his close relationship with Putin could risk putting him more on the side of Iran than Israel would want him to be,” an Israeli-American author of a book on the region, “Ghosts of a Holy War,” Yardena Schwartz, tells the Sun.