MOSCOW, Aug. 17 (UPI) — Russia and Iran said that they plan to expand military and economic cooperation after their top diplomats met Monday in Moscow.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif also reiterated their shared commitment in backing embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s civil war. Russia believes Assad, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, should be involved against a coalition against the Islamic State.
Lavrov met with members of Syria’s opposition group last week.
“There are all the opportunities today to bring Russian-Iranian relations to a new, more advanced level in the spirit of the agreements reached by the two presidents and taking into account those decisions that were made to resolve the situation around the Iranian nuclear program,” Lavrov said at the press conference, Radio Free Europe reported.
The Iranian foreign minister spoke effusively about his country’s partnership with the Kremlin. “We are confident that the Vienna agreement [on July 14 between Iran and the P5+1 countries] will have an enormous impact on developing ties between our two countries.
Lavrov and Zarif also discussed the possible pending delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missiles from Russia to Iran. The Kremlin said in April that Putin signed a decree to end the self-imposed ban on weapons delivery, TASS reported. The United States and Israel had lobbied that Russia not to deliver the weapons system, fearing it could be used to shield Iran’s nuclear facilities from possible future air strikes.
“If some of our partners believe that we should necessarily agree in advance that at the end of an interim period the president will leave his post — this position is not acceptable for Russia,” argued Lavrov.
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