Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he has secured Israel's pledge to safeguard Russian personnel at Iran's Russia-built nuclear power plant and that he has reached out to both sides to try to end the week-old war.

“If the Middle East is unstable, the world will not be at peace,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday. “If the conflict escalates further, not only will the conflicting parties suffer greater losses, but regional countries will also suffer greatly.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin made the following comments at a plenary session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday.