Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Friday, in their first face-to-face meeting since Pezeshkian’s election in late July.
During the meeting on the sidelines of an international forum of Central Asian leaders, Putin hailed Russia’s relations with Iran as “sincere and strategic.”
“Relations with Iran are a priority for us,” Putin told Pezeshkian, as reported by RIA Novosti, the Russian state-owned news agency. He also described Iran and Russia’s positions on international developments as “very close.”
“Moscow and Tehran actively cooperate with each other in the international arena and often agree on their assessments of world events,” he said.
Pezeshkian made similar remarks, saying, “Our positions in the world are much closer to each other than other countries,” according to the Iranian state-run Press TV.
Speaking on regional developments, Pezeshkian condemned Israeli military actions in Gaza and Lebanon, warning, “The situation in the region is critical.”
Putin extended an invitation for Pezeshkian to attend the upcoming BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan Oct. 23–24, congratulating Iran on becoming a full member of the bloc last year.
The Turkmenistan meeting coincides with seemingly growing tensions in the Middle East, amid a potential Israeli reprisal for Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel earlier this month.
On Oct. 1, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel — the second such attack this year — in what Tehran said was a response to Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and the IRGC’s Quds Force deputy commander, Abbas Nilforoushan, in a strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sept. 27, as well as the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to respond to the attack. “Iran made a big mistake tonight — and it will pay for it,” Netanyahu said in a statement shortly after the attack.
Meanwhile, Russia, which has forged strong military relations with Iran in the past few years, warned Friday against an Israeli strike on Iranian civilian nuclear facilities, saying it would amount to a “serious provocation.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference in Laos today that the International Atomic Energy Agency has found no indications of Iran having begun to transform its nuclear program into a military one.
“If any plans or threats to attack the Islamic Republic of Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities are realized, it would indeed be a very serious provocation,” he stressed.
Moscow and Tehran have strengthened military and economic ties in the face of sanctions imposed on them by the West and by their growing political isolation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In a $1.7 billion deal signed in late 2022, Iran agreed to supply Russia with hundreds of drones, for its offensive against Ukraine.
Washington recently confirmed Russia taking delivery of advanced weaponry from Iran. Speaking at a press conference in London Sept. 10, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Tehran of sending short-range ballistic missiles to Moscow to be used in its war in Ukraine. His remarks coincided with fresh US sanctions imposed on ships and companies allegedly involved in the transfer of weapons from Iran to Russia.
Meanwhile, Iran finalized a deal last November to procure Sukhoi SU-35 fighters, Mil Mi-28 attack helicopters, and Yak-130 jet trainers, Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Mahdi Farahi announced at the time. The Yak-130s have been delivered, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, but it remains unclear whether any of the other aircraft have as well. Iranian officials had denied reports in April claiming imminent delivery of new Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets.
Reports also emerged in August about alleged Russian arms shipments being delivered to Iran. The New York Times cited Iranian officials at the time as saying that Russia had begun to transfer advanced radar and air defense equipment to Tehran following a request made to the Kremlin.
The governments in Tehran and Moscow did not issue comments on the report at the time.
Relations between Iran and Russia have also deepened at the political level. Iranian and Russian officials have exchanged several visits in recent years. Most prominently, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov traveled to Tehran on Oct. 23, 2023, two weeks after Hamas launched its attack on Israel. According to a Foreign Ministry press release, Lavrov met with then-President Ebrahim Raisi and then-Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and stressed the need for a cease-fire in Gaza. They also rejected the West’s “illegitimate unilateral sanctions,” which the Foreign Ministry said undermined the global economy.
More recently, on Sept. 30, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived in the Iranian capital for an official visit, during which he held talks with Pezeshkian on ways to boost bilateral cooperation.
Also, two high-ranking Russian officials who are also aides to President Putin were in Tehran on Sept. 17 to discuss bilateral cooperation. The International North-South Transport Corridor, a key cross-regional infrastructure project aimed at facilitating trade connectivity between India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe, was at the center of the discussions.
Putin, in his first trip abroad after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, visited Iran, in July 2022.