Putin “expressed hope that all parties will show reasonable restraint and will not allow a new round of confrontation, fraught with catastrophic consequences for the entire region”, the Kremlin said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned of the risk of a “catastrophic” escalation in the Middle East as Israel weighs its response to Iran’s unprecedented weekend drone and missile attack.

Putin made the remarks in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, on Tuesday. The two leaders discussed what the Kremlin called “retaliatory measures taken by Iran” after an Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 1.

Putin urged all sides in the Middle East to refrain from action that would trigger a new confrontation which he warned would be fraught with catastrophic consequences for the region, the Kremlin said.

Raisi said Iran had no interest in a further escalation of tensions following its “limited” weekend attack on Israel in response to the April 1 strike on its diplomatic mission in Syria, according to the Kremlin statement.

Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel late on Saturday in retaliation to the Israeli strike in Damascus that killed seven officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two generals.

Putin, in his first publicly aired comments on Iran’s attack, said the root cause of the current instability in the Middle East was the unresolved conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Vladimir Putin expressed hope that all sides would show reasonable restraint and prevent a new round of confrontation fraught with catastrophic consequences for the entire region,” the Kremlin said.

“Ebrahim Raisi noted that Iran’s actions were forced and limited in nature,” the Kremlin said. “At the same time, he stressed Tehran’s disinterest in further escalation of tensions.”

Tehran gave a slightly different readout of the call, with state media quoting Raisi as declaring that Iran would respond more severely, extensively, and painfully than ever to any action against Iran’s interests.

Iranian state media quoted Putin as characterising Tehran’s response to Israel as the best way to punish the aggressor and a manifestation of the wisdom of Iran's leaders.

Iran’s presidency said Raisi thanked Russia for its position towards Tehran’s response to Israel and said the inaction of the international community and the destructive role of some Western countries forced Iran to carry out the recent operation.

The Iranian leader reiterated that any action against Iran’s interests will demand a larger-scale response, the presidency said.

Russia, which has forged close ties with both Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and several Arab leaders, has repeatedly scolded the West for ignoring the need for an independent Palestinian state within 1967 borders.

“Both sides stated that the root cause of the current events in the Middle East is the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” the Kremlin said of the call with Raisi.

“In this regard, the principled approaches of Russia and Iran in favour of an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, easing the difficult humanitarian situation, and creating conditions for a political and diplomatic settlement of the crisis were confirmed.”

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Iran has provided Russia with a large number of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and drones that Moscow has used in Ukraine.