“Iran’s cooperation with Russian Federation, including interaction in the struggle with terrorism and in the energy sphere is a bright example”, Mirsky said.
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In order to enhance the effectiveness of joint operations by Russian Federation and Iran against the Islamic State Moscow is keen to encourage Tehran by supplying its S-300 air defense systems, issuing an export loan and launching joint projects in energy and construction.
On his first trip to Tehran in almost a decade, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the ongoing conflict in Syria, saying no foreign nation should interfere with Bashar Assad’s regime. In April, Putin lifted a ban on selling five S-300 missile systems to Iran, according to a deal reached in 2007 that was suspended in 2010, as world powers sought to pressure Iran to negotiate limits to its nuclear program.
Russian Federation had one month earlier launched a wave of air strikes in support of Assad, whose Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, has close ties to Iran, the region’s main Shiite power.
Seeking to build new partnership after a deacde, Putin met for more than 90 minutes on Monday with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But Kachikwu said that the GECF countries faced a number of challenges, emphasizing the need for “enhanced cooperation and coordination among GECF member countries to promote gas”.
But as before, the parties continued to disagree on the future of Assad as that process unfolds, and at his meeting with Putin, Khamenei slammed the United States and its allies for wanting Assad to go.
“Moscow is a strategic partner of Iran”, said the Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zangeneh. Both countries have in fact endorsed the proposal agreed in Vienna on 14 November, according to which “free and fair elections” would be held according to a new constitution within 18 months.
Attention is now focused on stopping Islamic State group jihadists, who previous year took control of large parts of Syria and surged into Iraq, from breaching Assad’s defences and taking Damascus. Iran backs Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters who are battling alongside Assad’s troops against opposition rebels.
Agence France-Presse reported that Moscow had used the visit as an opportunity to ease restrictions upon working on Iranian nuclear enrichment sites.
When terrorism thrives, the return of terrorist forces to their countries on one hand and the flow of refugees on the other become the source of many problems for their countries and their neighboring countries, he noted.
Questions thus remain on how far Iran and Russian Federation would agree on a full political settlement.
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“Syria is a long-term Soviet and Russian ally”.
