Iran, Russia expected to sign new strategic comprehensive agreement

Read this article in:

Russia and Iran are expected to sign a new comprehensive cooperation agreement soon, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“We expect that this agreement will be signed in the very near future since work on the text is already close to completion. All the necessary wording has been found,” Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told Russian state media in an interview published Tuesday.

In 2001, Russia and the Iranian regime signed a 20-year strategic agreement, which was automatically renewed in 2020 for an additional five years. At that time, the two nations agreed to work on a new strategic agreement to replace the old one.

Among other things, the 2001 agreement included cooperation in security and energy projects, including the peaceful use of nuclear energy and the construction of nuclear power plants, industry and technology, according to Reuters.

In July 2022, Russia agreed to invest around $40 billion in the Iranian oil industry.

Very few details of the agreement have been revealed, however, ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow and Tehran have developed some degree of cooperation in the military and energy sectors. In February 2023, the Iranian regime admitted it was supplying Russia with Iranian drones that were being deployed against Ukraine.

Also in February 2023, the two nations agreed to build a factory that would be able to produce at least 6,000 Iranian drones for Russia to use in its war on Ukraine. The factory was expected to manufacture an updated version of the Shahed-136 autonomous suicide drone that Russia has been using against Ukraine. In April, Ukraine reportedly caused “significant” damage to the factory producing the Iranian drones.

Cooperation between Iran and Russia has become an increasing threat to Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s growing ties with the Islamic regime, which provides military and financial support to its terror proxies against Israel, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran also provides support to its proxies in Yemen, the Houthi rebels who target international shipping trade in the Red Sea, as well as Syrian-based terror forces against Israeli and American troops stationed in the Middle East.

Israel is also concerned about Russia’s offer to provide Iran with jets and new air defense systems. Iran has specifically requested to buy the S-400 air defense system, some variants of which have radar sophisticated enough to reveal modern stealth fighters, and possibly even the American F-35 jets that Israel operates.