New Delhi, Aug. 7 -- MOSCOW - The phone call between Vladimir Putin and Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Friday placed Russia at the center of a day of intense diplomatic activity across the Persian Gulf region. Putin, the Kremlin said in a statement, called the UAE president to discuss "in great detail the current situation in the Persian Gulf zone." Both sides "emphasized the importance of reaching agreements on the normalization in the Persian Gulf region as soon as possible."

The language was diplomatic shorthand, but its urgency was plain. The Gulf has spent the past several months absorbing the shock of a US-Iran war that began with coordinated strikes in February and arrived at a fragile ceasefire in June, brokered not by Washington...