MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia is prepared to expand cooperation with Iran in all areas, the Kremlin said on Monday.
Moscow has close relations with Tehran and condemned U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites earlier this year that were carried out with the stated aim of preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. Iran denies building a nuclear weapon.
Asked by reporters how Russia saw the development of events around Iran’s nuclear programme and if Moscow would deepen ties with Tehran, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:
“Russia is definitely ready to expand cooperation with Iran in all areas. Iran is our partner, and our relations are developing very dynamically.”
Peskov said European countries were putting “excessive pressure” on Iran in regards to negotiations over its nuclear programme, adding that the situation was “very complicated”.
An envoy for Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani later on Monday, less than a week after Larijani met with the Kremlin leader and handed him a message from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian signed a strategic partnership agreement in January, although the pact does not contain a mutual defence clause. Moscow says it legally supplies Tehran with military equipment, while Iran has provided Russia with drones to use in its war in Ukraine.
Russian state nuclear energy giant Rosatom signed a $25-billion deal last month with Iran to build four nuclear power plants in the country, which suffers from electricity shortages and currently has only one operating nuclear power plant, built by Russia in the southern city of Bushehr.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
