The Iranian president’s latest stop in a diplomatic drive aimed at blunting Israel’s promised attacks was a meeting today with Russian President Putin in Turkmenistan.
“Relations with Iran are a priority for us,” the Kremlin said, as it released video of the two leaders together. “We work together actively in the international arena, and our assessment of events happening in the world are often very close.”
The relationship is about more than agreeing on anti-Western ideology. Russia has an air defense system that would help Iran if it comes under attack from Israel.
Iran, meanwhile, has supplied Russia with weapons like Shahed drones for its war in Ukraine. And support for Iran by a nuclear-armed Russia will inevitably factor into any assessment of a strike on the country.
The meeting between Putin and Iran’s Pezeshkian appears to have been arranged in a hurry. Russian media only announced it on Monday. And it underscores the ways in which events around the world are pushing America’s adversaries toward one another.
In 10 days, at a meeting in Russia of BRICS countries, which China is expected to attend, Pezeshkian says he hopes Iran will sign a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Russia. The last country to sign such an agreement with Moscow, earlier this year, was North Korea.