Iran has broached the possibility of getting Russia’s help to build a nuclear power plant during talks in Moscow.
President Masoud Pezeshkian travelled to the Russian capital to meet President Vladimir Putin on Friday, when they signed a 20-year strategic partnership treaty.
It was Mr Pezeshkian’s first visit to the Kremlin since winning presidency last July, but his third meeting with the Russian leader.
He said that he hoped the two leaders might be able to finalise an agreement on building a nuclear power plant in Iran with Russian help.
Mr Pezeshkian added: “We do consider our relations with you as vital, sensitive and strategic, and we are on this path strongly.”
Mr Putin said work on a potential gas pipeline to carry Russian gas to Iran was progressing despite difficulties, and that,
despite delays in building new nuclear reactors for Iran, Moscow was open to potentially taking on more nuclear projects.
In an apparent swipe at the US, the Iranian leader also said regional problems should be defused by countries in the Middle East only.
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“They come from another side of the world to make chaos in the region,” he said. “These ties will defuse their plot, definitely.”
The agreement is not expected to include a mutual defence clause, like the kind Russia signed with North Korea, but is likely to concern the West nonetheless.
A Donald Trump-shaped shadow
Russia built Iran’s first nuclear power plant at Bushehr that became operational in 2013 and signed a contract the next year to build two more nuclear reactors.
But the meeting comes just days before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
During his first term, Mr Trump unilaterally took the US out of a 2015 deal between Iran and six nuclear powers offering sanctions relief for Tehran curbing its atomic programme.
Mr Trump has vowed to broker peace in Ukraine and take a tougher stance on Iran which is already grappling with economic issues and a setback in its military influence across the Middle East.
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Russia and Iran pooled their efforts to shore up Bashar Assad’s government during the Syrian civil war, but failed to prevent his downfall last month.
As Russia has had its resources diverted to its war in Ukraine, Islamist rebels seized Syria and Hamas, who Iran backs, has been pounded by Israel during its war in Gaza, both weakening Mr Pezeshkian’s standing.
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Russia and Iran, which have had troubled relations in the past, have grown closer since Mr Putin’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The West has accused Tehran of supplying Moscow with hundreds of drones to attack Ukraine, something both countries denied.
