Russia and Iran strengthen their alliance with a new strategic pact

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Massoud Pezeshkian signed a strategic partnership agreement in the Kremlin on Friday, notably strengthening their “military cooperation”, as part of their alliance intended as a counterweight to any “diktat” from the West.

Subject to heavy international sanctions which affect their economies, Russia and Iran have made an accelerated rapprochement in recent years, particularly since the assault on Ukraine.

The two countries also suffered, in December, a common failure and a loss of influence with the flight from Syria of their ally Bashar Al-Assad.

On Friday, Vladimir Putin and Massoud Pezeshkian signed a global strategic partnership agreementa pact covering multiple areas.

This is a text with ambitious goalspraised Vladimir Putin, asserting that Moscow and Tehran were opposing each other to any diktat coming from outside.

Massoud Pezeshkian was satisfied with an agreement which will open horizons between the two countries.

The agreement provides in particular for develop military cooperation and to support each other in the face of security threatsaccording to the content of the agreement in 47 articles published by the Kremlin after the signing.

No help for attackers

According to the document, if Russia or Iran faced a assaultthe other country would not provide any aide to the aggressor country.

This point does not, however, provide that the signatory countries would provide each other with military assistance in this scenario.

Moscow concluded a text of the same name with North Korea last year. An article in this document provides immediate military aid in the event of armed aggression from a third country.

But the head of Iranian diplomacy, Abbas Araghchi, quoted by Russian media, affirmed this week that the treaty with Tehran was not aimed at create a military alliance similar to that sealed between Moscow and Pyongyang.

North Korea is accused by kyiv and the West of having sent soldiers to fight with the Russian army against Ukrainian forces. Moscow and Pyongyang have neither confirmed nor denied.

Tehran, for its part, is accused by the West of supplying explosive drones and short-range missiles to Russia, thus helping the Russian army in Ukraine. Accusations rejected by Iran.

The agreement signed on Friday also provides for exchanges in the field of peaceful uses of atomic energynotably the construction of nuclear energy facilities.

Tehran and Moscow want to be counterweights, along with Beijing and Pyongyang, to American influence. They have forged close ties and support each other on numerous international issues, from the Middle East to the conflict in Ukraine.

This signature comes a few days before the return to power in Washington of Donald Trump, architect of a so-called policy of maximum pressure towards Iran during his first term (2017-2021).

The American president-elect also promised to quickly end the conflict in Ukraine, without specifying how.

Friday, Massoud Pezeshkian called him during his joint press conference with Vladimir Putin to negotiations and peace between Moscow and kyiv, three years after the start of the assault launched by the Kremlin.

A previous Russian translation of his remarks suggested a political settlement of this conflict.

The two leaders said they discussed the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, with Vladimir Putin saying he hoped for a long-term stabilization.

We hope that a permanent ceasefire will be established in Gaza and that the attacks on this land will ceasea dit Massoud Pezeshkian.

Iran and Russia, aware of their historical responsibility, are building a new orderwrote Abbas Araghchi, the head of Iranian diplomacy, in an article published this week by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

He said it was about replacing hegemony – Western implication – by cooperation.

Massoud Pezeshkian, who arrived in Moscow on Friday morning, had earlier laid a wreath in front of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and met Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

The last meeting between MM. Pezeshkian and Putin went back to October, during the BRICS summit in Russia. Vladimir Putin then called for consolidating the positive dynamic regarding their economic cooperation.

Russia particularly wishes to develop a logistics corridor project – rail and maritime – between Moscow, Baku and Tehran, on a north-south axis.