Russia-Iran security pact ‘epochal’ – Middle East expert
Moscow and Tehran have taken their cooperation to the level of strategic partnership with a “truly epochal” pact, Middle East expert Farhad Ibragimov told RT on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, signed a major bilateral security pact in Moscow on Friday. The bilateral Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership states that Russia and Iran will boost security, naval, economic, and humanitarian cooperation for the next 20 years.
“This agreement is truly epochal,” Ibragimov said. “Russia and Iran have reached a new level of cooperation.”
The two BRICS+ states see each other as key strategic partners which share similar world views, he added.
Russia sees Iran as a very serious partner with whom it would like to develop its relations in the Middle East.
“And of course, Iran has long regarded Russia as one of its most important strategic partners, sometimes even describing Moscow as an ally,” Ibragimov stated.
“Iran sees Russia as a player who can help form a new world order within the system of international relations, which is a fundamental task for Tehran,” he said, adding that Russia is one of the few sovereign countries in the world that can afford to challenge the US, while Tehran sees the US as “the greatest threat to the security of the entire world and the Middle East in particular.”
The economic cooperation clauses of the agreement are very important to Iran, as the country has been living under Western sanctions for decades, Ibrahimov said. Despite this, the security aspects of the agreement are not directed against any state in particular, he stressed.
Russia and Iran will not provide any kind of assistance to the aggressor – military or otherwise – in the event either country is attacked, according to the text of the agreement published on the Kremlin’s website on Friday.
“The agreements reached will contribute to the further strengthening of the entire complex of Russian-Iranian relations and ties,” Putin said at a press conference alongside Pezeshkian on Friday.
