Russian, Iranian president might discuss situation in Syria

17/1/2025 6:13

Russian President Vladimir

Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian may discuss the

situation in Syria, the Middle East, and Iran's nuclear

programme on Friday, during Pezeshkian's visit to Russia, the

Kremlin said on Thursday.



Putin and Pezeshkian are set to sign a long-awaited

strategic cooperation agreement on Friday in a move likely to

worry the West, which sees both countries as malign influences

on the world stage.



A Kremlin statement on the eve of the meeting said relations

between Moscow and Tehran were "on the rise and are being

developed intensively on the basis of mutual respect and taking

account of (their) interests."



The statement said the leaders were likely to discuss key

issues, specifically Middle East developments, including in

Syria and in the Israel-Hamas conflict.



Also on the agenda were events in the Caucasus region and

Iran's nuclear programme.



Earlier, Russia's state-owned TASS news agency quoted Iran's

ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, as saying the cooperation

agreement would not include a mutual-defence clause like pacts

Moscow has signed with North Korea and Belarus.



"The nature of this agreement is different. They (Belarus

and North Korea) established partnership relations (with Moscow)

in a number of areas that we did not particularly touch upon,"

TASS quoted the ambassador as saying.



"Our country's independence and security, as well as

self-reliance, are extremely important. We are not interested in

joining any bloc."



Russia and Iran have developed closer relations in recent

years, particularly since Moscow's February 2022 invasion of

Ukraine. The Kremlin statement said total trade between the

countries climbed 15.5% year-on-year in the first 10 months of

2024.



Ukraine said last year Russia had launched more than 8,000

Iran-developed Shahed drones since the invasion. Kyiv first

accused Iran of supplying the drones to Russia in autumn 2022.