MOSCOW: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi accused the West on Thursday of supporting “genocide” by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza, at the start of talks in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin.

As part of a burst of meetings focused on the Middle East, Putin greeted Raisi in the Kremlin a day after visiting the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where he discussed oil prices and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

In televised opening remarks, Putin said it was very important to discuss the situation in the Middle East, especially in the Palestinian territories.

Raisi responded via a translator: “What is happening in Palestine and Gaza is of course genocide and a crime against humanity.” Iran backs the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the ruling authority in Gaza, in its war with Israel. Russia has relations with all the key players in the Middle East including Hamas and Israel, which it angered by hosting a Hamas delegation in Moscow in October.

Analysts say the Gaza conflict has helped Russia by distracting world attention from the war in Ukraine and enabling Moscow to align itself with other developing countries in solidarity with the Palestinians.