The Moscow-Tehran alliance grew stronger Thursday, with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arriving in the Russian capital to meet Vladimir Putin, days after the two nations inked an agreement aimed at “increasing coordination” to undermine U.S. sanctions.
Iranian state media reported that a key focus of the one-day summit will be the Hamas-Israel war. Mr. Raisi and Mr. Putin will discuss a range of “international issues, especially the issue of Palestine and developments in Gaza,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Iran openly backs Hamas, while Russia has increasingly close relations with North Korea, which has been accused of providing weapons to the Palestinian terror group. Weapons seized by Israel indicate the group likely fired North Korean weapons during its Oct. 7 assault on Israel, although Pyongyang denies arming Hamas.
U.S. military intelligence, meanwhile, 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.
The connectivity among Iran, Russia, North Korea and Hamas hung in the backdrop of Mr. Raisi’s visit to Moscow. The previous one-on-one meeting between the Iranian president and Mr. Putin occurred in September 2022 in Uzbekistan on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a multilateral group established by China in the 1990s.
According to The National, a private newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates, Iranian state media reports indicate that Mr. Raisi and Mr. Putin most recently spoke by telephone on Oct. 16, discussing the Hamas-Israel war.
The paper noted Thursday that Russia and Iran are allied on several issues, including support for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and have both been subjected to Western economic sanctions.
Russia’s official TASS news outlet cited Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali as saying on social media that Mr. Raisi’s visit to Russia and cooperation between Tehran and Moscow “make a major contribution to building a new world order.”
A statement circulated by the Kremlin said: “The two presidents plan to review the current agenda of bilateral cooperation with an emphasis on the implementation of promising joint trade and economic projects, including transport and energy. They will also exchange views on the main international and regional issues.”
The meeting comes two days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, signed an agreement in Moscow to counter sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other Western nations.
Mr. Lavrov accused America and its allies of using sanctions as a “substitute for diplomacy.”
The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the Russian energy and defense sectors in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington has targeted Iran’s energy sector with sanctions in response to Tehran’s backing of militant proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and against Iranian nuclear activities occurring in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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