Vladimir Putin has been urged to offer immediate military support to Iran, one of the isolated country’s main allies, following the launch of Operation Epic Fury.

Russian MP Alexei Zhuravlev said Russia should provide immediate military aid to Iran after the US-Israeli attacks on the country.

“This is not a situation where we should limit ourselves to protest notes, but rather stand up for Iran before it is too late, by all possible means, including military support,” Zhuravlev, deputy chairman of the Russian parliament’s defence committee, said.

He is also calling for a “military coalition” of authoritarian states to back Tehran. “It is clear that the United States will no longer even try to negotiate with anyone and will attack a new opponent with renewed force,” Zhuravlev said, also adding that Russia could be the next target. They must be stopped at these lines, supplied with weapons, intelligence information, and everything necessary so that Iran can hold back this armada in its direction.

“It even makes sense to create a military coalition for this confrontation, otherwise the collective West will pick everyone off one by one,” he added.

Moscow politicians said that the US was negotiating with Iran over nuclear issues, just as it was with Russia over ending the Ukraine war. But it didn’t stop a devastating strike to remove the leadership of Iran even as talks were ongoing.

Putin ideologue Alexander Dugin branded the strikes not simply as an attack on Tehran, but as part of a deliberate campaign against Moscow’s allies after the fall of Maduro in Venezuela and the Assad dynasty in Syria.

“One by one, our allies are being systematically destroyed,” he said. “It’s clear who’s next, and it’s clear what negotiations with such an enemy mean. The most important thing right now—for Iran, for Russia, for humanity—is a long war in the Middle East.”

The US is continuing its bombing campaign in the Middle East, launching fresh strikes on Iran overnight.

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that its military is continuing the assault on Iranian targets. “US forces are taking bold action to eliminate imminent threats posed by the Iranian regime. Strikes continue,” CENTCOM said.

Iran has since struck several countries in the Middle East, and also targeted a RAF base in Cyprus. Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said the attack that took place after midnight on a UK military base on British territory in southern Cyprus caused “minor material damage”. The attack came from Iranian drones, he confirmed.

After the attack, a Government minister said the UK is not at war with Iran. Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said an “unmanned drone” had hit the runway at RAF Akrotiri and inflicted “relatively limited damage,” but asked if the UK was now at war, he said: “The UK is not at war.”