Can Russia broker a new US-Iran deal?

This week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov travelled to Iran, where he met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and several other officials. The visit came on the tail of two meetings between Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 8 and September 1. Media reports have indicated that Moscow has offered to mediate between Washington and Tehran in talks on a possible nuclear deal. Whether these efforts will be successful is too early to judge, but there are several factors that could make Russia a potentially more effective mediator than others.