Rafael M. Manueco
Correspondent. Moscow
Monday, September 30, 2024, 8:06 p.m.
In the context of the Israeli Army’s operation in Lebanon and the annihilation of the Hezbollah leadership, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin traveled to Tehran this Monday and met with the Iranian President, Masud Pezeshkian, and the First Vice President. , Mohammad Reza Aref. Moscow and Tehran have been preparing the content of a major “strategic agreement” for months. On the 18th, just after the former Minister of Defense and head of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, traveled to Tehran to address security issues, the president, Vladimir Putin, gave his approval to the Foreign Ministry’s proposal. .
According to different sources, it conforms to the model agreement signed with North Korea, which includes military assistance. The document could be definitively signed at the end of October, when Pezeshkian will go to Russia to participate in the BRICS summit.
The United States and other Western countries have accused Iran of supplying drones and ballistic missiles to Russia to use in its offensive on Ukrainian soil in exchange, supposedly, for technology to develop its nuclear weapons program, Su-35 fighter jets, helicopters Mi-28 attack and Yak-130 pilot training aircraft.
But Tehran denies this, ensuring that its position in relation to the conflict in Ukraine is “neutral”, despite evidence of the use of Shahed drones against targets in Ukraine. Iran, along with North Korea, are virtually the only countries supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia for its war against Ukraine.
Destabilization
From Moscow, meanwhile, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, joined the condemnations expressed the day before by the Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, deploring the death of Hasan Nasralá, leader of Hezbollah, in the bombings carried out by the Israeli Army. In his opinion, “these actions significantly destabilize the situation” throughout the Middle East (…) and “cause a large number of victims by targeting residential areas.”
Officially, the Government of Moscow framed the trip in the development of relations between both countries, giving “priority to the expansion of commercial and economic cooperation, the diversification of mutual trade and its structure, as well as the continuation of joint work to increase it.”
This was stated by Mishustin through his Cabinet’s Telegram channel. In his words, “Russia is sincerely interested in taking our cooperation to a higher level and giving it a new, more meaningful implementation.” He highlighted the need to “create favorable conditions for the implementation of large joint investment projects in various fields such as transport, industry, energy, trade and cultural cooperation.”
These issues, he declared, “will be resolved by a joint Russian-Iranian commission on trade and economic cooperation.” According to Mishustin, the volume of trade between Russia and Iran in the last seven months increased by 6.5%. Pezeshkian, for his part, said that “it is essential to strengthen bilateral relations in the context of Western sanctions” against Iran and Russia.
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