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Putin to meet Khamenei in Tehran on Monday

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Tehran on November 23.

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The news agency Interfax cited a Kremlin spokesperson on Monday as saying that Putin and Iran’s Khamenei agreed political decisions should not be imposed on Syria from outside. Representatives from several Russian companies have held talks in Iran in the run-up to Putin’s visit and negotiations are continuing, Mehdi Sanaei, the Iranian ambassador to Russia, told Etemad. The transfer and deployment of the system will be completed by the end of 2015, according to the agreement between the two countries.

The decree allows Russian Federation to help modify two cascades at Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment plant, to support Iranian efforts to export enriched uranium in exchange for raw uranium supplies, and to help Iran modernize its Arak heavy water reactor.

Putin will also partake in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Tehran, which is scheduled for Monday.

Russian Federation and Iran are both militarily backing forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with Moscow flying a bombing campaign and Iran believed to command thousands of troops on the ground.

For his part, Iran’s spiritual leader thanked the Russian president for his position on the issue relating to Tehran’s nuclear dossier. His comments were made to reporters at a meeting of the Russian-Iranian Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Khamenei said the USA had a “long-term plan” to dominate Syria and the Middle East that would “disadvantage all countries, especially Iran and Russia”.

Iran says its nuclear programme is only for civilian, not military, purposes.

Putin’s visit was planned before the UN Security Council on Friday authorised countries to “take all necessary measures” to fight ISIL in a France-sponsored resolution one week after the Paris attacks.

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The presidents of Bolivia, Russia, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Venezuela Iraq andTurkmenistan as well as Algerian prime minister are expected to attend the meeting.

Putin in Tehran for Syria talks