MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia remains ready to act as a mediator in the conflict between Israel and Iran, and Moscow's previous proposal to store Iranian uranium in Russia remains on the table, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Israel was exploiting its advantage, saying it had taken out dozens of surface-to-air missiles in western Iran and killed the intelligence chief of the Islamic Revoluti

Russia has maintained a delicate balancing act in the Middle East for decades, trying to navigate its warm relations with Israel even as it has developed strong economic and military ties with Iran.

Israel and Iran have begun a new round of attacks, as the conflict between the two heavily armed rivals enters its fourth day.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in separate telephone conversations on Friday, told Iran's president that Moscow condemned Israel's actions against Tehran and told Israel's prime minister that questions around Iran's nuclear programme could only be solved through diplomacy.

Salem predicts that this attack may push Iran to make a deal with the U.S, "the outlines of which might be that Iran accepts to forgo enrichment inside Iran, with a big deal with the U.S. and the U.S. lifts sanctions on Iran and that could obviously lead to a sudden and rapid decline in oil prices, so one has to keep that in mind."

The U.S. military is rerouting the USS Nimitz carrier strike group to the Middle East ahead of schedule from the South China Sea to bolster its presence in the region. The Nimitz, which could reach the Middle East as soon as this week,