Pezeshkian: Joint Iran-Russia projects key to countering sanctions

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says the implementation of critical projects between Iran and Russia will produce a huge capacity to counter cruel Western sanctions against the two countries.

Pezeshkian made the remark in a meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin of Russia who arrived in Tehran for an official visit on Monday, amid heightened tensions in the region.

Mishustin was accompanied by a high-ranking delegation of officials and heads of economic organizations.

Pezeshkian said the agreement to turn Iran into a transit and gas hub in the region is a prime example of joint cooperation aimed at securing common interests and achieving sustainable development, convergence and economic leap in the region.

He said the exchange of diplomatic delegations between Iran and Russia will boost bilateral interaction.

Pezeshkian further said regional cooperation within international organizations such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will boost the power of independent countries, including Iran, Russia and China, to counter US unilateralism.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Moscow’s trade links with Tehran were developing.

“The only thing I can say is that our trade and economic relations with Iran are developing. They are developing in all areas, and in trade too. The volume of trade is growing mutually,” he said.

Iran-Russia ties will continue to expand on lasting basis: Pezeshkian

The Iranian president says Iran-Russia relations will continue to expand along a permanent and lasting path.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian president warned that Israel is intensifying tensions with the direct support of the United States in order to prepare the ground for increasing the presence of the United States in the region.

This poses a “common threat to the interests of the regional countries and nations," he said.

The Russian prime minister, for his part, said Moscow is keen to improve interaction with Iran, particularly in the fields of energy, industry, transportation, agriculture, health and cultural issues.

Mishustin said the two countries have succeeded in increasing trade exchanges but still they enjoy enormous capacities to secure common interests.

He underscored the importance of strengthening bilateral cooperation in line with efforts to build a new world order which will be beneficial to everyone.

He invited the Iranian president to take part in the BRICS summit in Russia next month.

The Russian premier expressed concern over the escalation of tensions in the region and said the US supports mounting conflicts in different parts of the world with the purpose of securing its own interests.

Therefore, he emphasized, independent countries like Iran and Russia, should accelerate cooperation to counter such measures.

Promotion of cooperation with Russia, Iran’s principled stance: First VP

In a meeting with Mishustin, First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said Iran’s principled policy is to promote cooperation with Russia.

“Expansion of cooperation with neighboring countries, including Russia, figures high on the foreign policy agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Aref stated.

He stressed the importance of accelerating the implementation of the memoranda of understanding signed between the two countries.

He also condemned the crimes of Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip and Lebanon as well as the regime’s cowardly move to assassinate Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, in a massive airstrike on southern Beirut on Friday using American-supplied bunker-buster bombs.

“Russia’s measures in the United Nations Security Council can be very effective in preventing war and killing innocent people in Gaza and Lebanon,” Aref said.

He said both Iran and Russia share a similar experience in the face of the Western sanctions and underscored the need to expand cooperation at all levels to thwart these sanctions.

In a statement on Saturday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Israel would "bear full responsibility" for the "tragic" consequences of Nasrallah’s killing for the region.

"We decisively condemn the latest political murder carried out by Israel... we once again insistently urge Israel to immediately cease military action," the ministry said.

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