Relationship with Iran is Priority for Us: Putin in a Meeting with Masoud
In a meeting in Ashgabat with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, Russian president Putin expressed response towards Iran amid Iran's direct entry in the middle east tension. This meeting is also the first bilateral meeting between the two west-sanctioned countries since the invasion of Ukraine.
"We are actively cooperating on the international arena, and often share close or even converging assessments of the ongoing developments," said Putin at the meeting. "Our relationship with Iran is a priority for us, We are seeing growth in trade this year," he added. He also mentioned that he expects Iran in BRICS & SCO summits this year.
In response, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said, "We must ensure that our relations improve and become stronger moving forward…it is our duty to assist one another in these efforts. We share similar visions, and there are many similarities in terms of our respective international standing."
Before the meeting, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the agenda shall mainly focus on primary Russia-Iran bilateral relations, but also mentioned that it will not ignore the condition in the middle east, and it will also be in the agenda.
It has been seen recently that Iran is helping Russia militarily. It has supplied ballistic missiles and thousands of "Shahed" attack drones to Russia and according to US officials, has built a drone factory in Russia, which surely showcases the military closeness of the two countries. And there's the de facto alliance of the two countries in support of Bashar-al-Assad's regime in Syria.
Also, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference in Laos that the International Atomic Energy Agency has found no evidence that Iran has begun to militarize its nuclear program, and added that if any "plans or threats" to attack Iran's "peaceful nuclear facilities" realized, then it would be taken as a "very serious provocation".
According to some reports, Victor Bout, a Russian international arms dealer, who was exchanged in a prisoner swap for an American basketball player Britney Griner, has allegedly been involved to trade a $10 million deal of automatic weapons to the Iran backed Yemen based Houthi rebels, however Bout has denied the allegation.
Though the two countries don't share a friendly history of bilateral relations, they have mostly united against the common issues. This time the reason, according to Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, a geopolitical analyst, is the sanctions against the two countries that have made their relations closer since the Ukraine invasion.
The foreign ministry of Russia has said that Iran-Russia relations are at its peak.