Double trouble: Iran and Russia accelerating toward ‘major’ new partnership

Iran and Russia are advancing their strategic partnership, according to the Kremlin, which said Tuesday that the two U.S. adversaries are working to accelerate a “major new interstate agreement.”

While the statement from the Russian foreign ministry did not provide specific details, it comes days after Iran’s president visited Moscow and roughly two months after Iran’s defense minister called for enhanced military coordination with Russia.

Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri said during talks with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu in September that Tehran and Moscow would make mutual “military-technical cooperation” an item of a new bilateral treaty on long-term cooperation, Russia’s official TASS news agency reported at the time.

Those comments came weeks before the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its surprise Oct. 7 terror assault against Israel. Analysts say Russia-Iran relations have grown tighter in the wake of the Hamas attack.

The most recent example saw Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visiting Moscow for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The visit occurred days after the Iranian and Russian foreign ministers inked a new agreement aimed at “increasing coordination” to undermine U.S. sanctions.

Iranian state media reported that developments in the ongoing Hamas-Israel war were a key focus of the one-day summit. While Mr. Raisi was in Russia, TASS cited Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali as saying on social media that the visit, along with cooperation, between Tehran and Moscow would “make a major contribution to building a new world order.”

U.S. military intelligence has shown evidence that Iran is supplying drones to Russian forces in Ukraine. Regional news reports indicate the Iranians have also supplied Russia with artillery during the two-year war in Ukraine.

Reuters first reported Tuesday on the Russian foreign ministry statement. The statement said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had agreed during a phone call Monday to speed up work on a new agreement.

The Islamist theocracy controlling Iran has long been accused by Washington and its allies of developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons in violation of repeated U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Biden administration officials have recently warned that Iran may be moving toward sharing ballistic missiles with Russia. The Kremlin declined to comment on that claim last month, according to Reuters.