'Let's mediate Russia first': Trump to Putin on Israel-Iran mediation

The American leader said this during a conversation with journalists, AFP reports.

"I spoke to him yesterday. He actually offered to help mediate, I said 'do me a favor, mediate your own. Let's mediate Russia first, okay?" Trump said.

According to Trump, he told Putin that it is necessary to deal with Russia first.

"I said 'Vladimir, let's mediate Russia first, you can worry about this (the Middle East - ed.)  later/ I think that is going to be worked out too. Although, so many people have been killed. The big thing in that one is that far more people are dead than have been reported in the briefings on Ukraine and Russia. Many more people. A building falls down—and they say nobody was hurt, you know?" the U.S. president noted.

The Russian leader's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, clarified that Trump's statement that the conversation with Putin took place yesterday was figurative.

“He was saying figuratively: life is so intense now that a retrospective of a few days is like yesterday,” he added.

• During his conversation with journalists, American leader Donald Trump avoided giving a direct answer to the question about a possible U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.