<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a one-day trip to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia focused on the Israeli-Hamas war and host the Iranian president in Moscow this week, the Kremlin said Tuesday.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Putin will make working visits to both countries on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.</div><div><br></div><div>The talks will focus on bilateral relations, the war between Israel and Hamas and other international issues, Peskov said. Issues related to oil price caps under OPEC+ will also be on the agenda, he added.</div><div><br></div><div>Putin's trip was first announced on Monday by his foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, who didn't give a date for the visits when he spoke to the Russian news outlet Life.</div><div><br></div><div>“I hope that these will be very useful negotiations, which we consider extremely important,” Ushakov was quoted as saying by Life.</div><div><br></div><div>Putin will make the visit at a time when Russia wants to advance its role as a power broker in the conflict in the Middle East.</div><div><br></div><div>Putin will host Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in the Kremlin on Thursday, Peskov added.</div><div><br></div><div>The Russian president visited China in October and recently made several trips to former Soviet nations.</div><div><br></div><div>The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.</div><div><br></div><div>Since the warrant was issued, Putin chose not to attend a BRICS summit in South Africa because the country would be obliged to arrest Putin upon arrival as it is a signatory to the international court’s treaty.</div><div><br></div><div>Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE have signed the ICC’s founding treaty.</div><div><br></div><div>The notice against Putin in March was the first time the global court issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. The ICC said in a statement that Putin is accused of the war crime of ” unlawful deportation ″ of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. - AP</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>