Putin security chief meets Iranian president in Tehran as military ties deepen
Sergei Shoigu holds talks with Pezeshkian, other top officials after meeting with North Korean leader, amid Western concerns over Tehran supplying ballistic missiles to Moscow
MOSCOW, Russia — Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu held talks with Iran’s president and his Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Tuesday, Russian and Iranian media said, days after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.
Russia has deepened ties with Iran and North Korea, both of which are hostile to the United States, since the start of its war in Ukraine.
The United States views the growing relationships with concern and says both countries are supplying Russia with ballistic missiles for use in the conflict, something Moscow denies.
Shoigu’s trips are taking place at a crucial moment in the two-and-a-half-year war, as Kyiv presses the United States and its allies to let it use Western-supplied long-range weapons to strike targets such as airfields deep inside Russian territory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Western countries would be fighting Russia directly if they gave the green light and that Moscow would respond.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Shoigu on Tuesday that relations between Tehran and Moscow would develop in “a continuous and lasting way,” state media reported.
The Nour news agency, affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Shoigu also met his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Ahmadian. There was no immediate information on the outcome of the meeting.
Russia has repeatedly said it is close to signing a major agreement with Iran to seal a strategic partnership between the two countries.
Shoigu was Russian defense minister until May when he was appointed secretary of the Security Council, which brings together Putin’s military and intelligence chiefs and other senior officials.
Apart from meeting North Korea’s Kim last week, he also held talks in St. Petersburg with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Earlier this week, the Guardian newspaper reported the US and UK are concerned that Russia has been helping Iran develop its nuclear weapons program in exchange for the recent delivery of ballistic missiles it was provided by Tehran for use in its war against Ukraine, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The issue of deepening ties between Russia and Iran was a matter of concern during meetings between US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington, DC, on Friday, as well as during talks between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy earlier in the week.
Western countries also worry that Iran’s development of satellite launch vehicles “would shorten the timeline” for the state to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile, which could in turn be used to deliver nuclear weapons.
Iran is now producing uranium close to weapons-grade levels, after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers. It has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear weapons if it chooses to produce them, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency repeatedly has warned.
Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
