MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has nearly completed the required procedures to sign a new bilateral treaty with Iran soon, state news agency TASS quoted top security official Sergei Shoigu as saying on Tuesday.
“We look forward to the imminent conclusion of a new basic interstate treaty. We are completing the internal procedures necessary for the preparation of documents for signing by the presidents,” Shoigu said.
Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other states hostile towards the United States, such as North Korea, in the two and a half years since the start of the Ukraine war.
The United States accuses both countries of aiding Russia’s war effort, something Moscow denies. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier on Tuesday that Russia had received ballistic missiles from Iran and was likely to use them within weeks.
A senior Iranian official on Monday denied reports that Tehran had supplied Moscow with such missiles.
Russia has said for some time that it intends to sign a major partnership treaty with the Islamic Republic, but Shoigu’s statement was the strongest sign yet that such a deal is imminent.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)