Russia says Moscow and Tehran close to a new treaty

The official gave no explicit timeline for when the agreement would be ready for signing, but noted that the project had already been at “a high level of readiness” at the start of the year, but has since been delayed for an uncertain period due to some revisions by the Iranian side.

The bilateral treaty is being prepared on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who agreed to develop it in January 2022 in order to achieve a long-term strategic partnership.

Meanwhile, cooperation between Moscow and Tehran has continued to grow in other fields in recent years, as both sides have actively supported each other on the international stage. Following this week’s Israeli attack on the Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus, Russia called for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the airstrike, which left several Iranian diplomats and officers dead, including two generals, as “completely unacceptable” and has urged Israel to abandon all provocative military actions in Syria and other neighboring countries, warning of potentially dire consequences for the region.

The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence service, Sergey Naryshkin, has described the attack as an act of terrorism, condemning it as an “ugly and criminal step” by Israel.

Tehran, in turn, has harshly condemned last month’s Crocus City Hall terrorist attack near Moscow, which led to the death of over 140 people. Iran has vowed to cooperate more actively with Russia in the fight against terrorism. Raisi had personally expressed his sympathies to Putin and called for “serious measures by the international community for punishing the architects and perpetrators of this [act]”.

Previously, during their meeting in Moscow in December 2023, Putin and Raisi spent a total of five hours discussing bilateral ties, global challenges such as the Gaza conflict, as well as trade and cooperation in energy and education.

The Russian president had stated at the time that Moscow and Tehran were actively engaging in cooperation “across the entire spectrum of our bilateral relations”.