Last year it was given full membership of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, a Eurasian security and economic club dominated by China and Russia. In January Iran was admitted to BRICS, another group that China and Russia are trying to nurture as a bastion of West-sceptics.

Israel said it is listening to US misgivings about its planned counter-strike against Iran but will act based on its own assessments, following a report suggesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could spare Tehran’s nuclear and energy facilities from any immediate reprisal.