Putin likely wanted to show that Moscow is still important in the Middle East by visiting Iran, said John Drennan of the U.S. Institute of Peace. It could present an opportunity for them but also could present a very, very disastrous outcome for their influence in the Middle East too if the conflict spirals out of control," Ramani said. Analysts also believe Russia will use the war in Israel and Gaza to sow disinformation about Ukraine and discord among its allies. As such, the war between Israel and Hamas also provides Russia with an opportunity to flex its diplomatic muscles in the Middle East, after something of a hiatus from the global stage. So this shows that Russia is not isolated in the Middle East, and Russia still maintains the same array of diplomatic partnerships that it had before the war," he noted.

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Persons: Vladimir Putin, Ebrahim Raisi, Putin, John Drennan, Sergei Savostyanov, Samuel Ramani, Ramani, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Joe Biden, Jim Watson, Volodymy Zelenskyy, Sergei Karpukhin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Maxim Shemetov, They've, they've, Bashar al, Assad Organizations: Getty, Palestinian, Hamas, U.S . Institute of Peace, AFP, Royal United Services Institute, CNBC, Kremlin, Ukraine, Analysts, White, U.S, Congress, NATO, Afp, International Energy Agency, Russia, Israeli, Iraqi Locations: Sochi, Russia, Israel, Gaza, Moscow, Iran, Ukraine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, U.S, Europe, Washington ,, Brussels, Russian, OPEC, Turkey, Egypt, Tehran