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Iran: Partnership Pact with Russia Doesn’t Include Defense Clause

Tehran and Moscow have boosted their military and political cooperation in recent years. Maxim Shemetov / POOL/AFP
Tehran and Moscow have boosted their military and political cooperation in recent years. Maxim Shemetov / POOL/AFP
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Iran: Partnership Pact with Russia Doesn’t Include Defense Clause

Tehran and Moscow have boosted their military and political cooperation in recent years. Maxim Shemetov / POOL/AFP
Tehran and Moscow have boosted their military and political cooperation in recent years. Maxim Shemetov / POOL/AFP

Russia and Iran will sign a "comprehensive strategic partnership" treaty on Friday during a visit to Moscow by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, cementing ties between two of the world's most heavily sanctioned countries.
The agreement comes just three days before Iran-hawk Donald Trump enters the White House and as Moscow and Tehran seek to formalize their close relationship after years of deepening cooperation, said AFP.
Iran has supplied Russia with self-detonating "Shahed" drones that Moscow fires on Ukraine in nightly barrages, according to Ukrainian and Western officials, while both nations have ramped up trade amid Western sanctions.
The new treaty will strengthen Tehran and Moscow's "military-political and trade-economic" relations, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, without providing further detail.
Tehran has given little information about Friday's pact, but ruled out a mutual defense clause like the one included in Russia's treaty with North Korea last year, Russian state media reported, citing Tehran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi.
The two sides had been working on a new treaty for years, with their current relationship governed by a 2001 agreement that they have renewed periodically.
'Global hegemony'
Russia says its upcoming pact with Iran and the already-signed treaty with Pyongyang are "not directed against any country".
"The treaty ... is constructive in nature and is aimed at strengthening the capabilities of Russia, Iran, and our friends in various parts of the world," Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
It is set to be valid for 20 years, Russia's TASS news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Iranian ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made building ties with Iran, China and North Korea a cornerstone of his foreign policy as he seeks to challenge what he calls as US-led "global hegemony".
Both Russia and Iran are under heavy Western sanctions that include restrictions on their vital energy industries.
At a summit of the BRICS group in Kazan last year, Putin told Pezeshkian he valued "truly friendly and constructive ties" between Russia and Iran.
Pezeshkian's visit to Russia comes just days before Trump returns to power.
The US president-elect, who has made repeated military threats against Iran, is seeking a rapid end to the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The agreement comes a month after a rebel offensive overthrew Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad -- who was heavily supported by both Moscow and Tehran -- and as Israel and Iran's ally Hamas gear up for a ceasefire in Gaza.

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Putin and Iranian President Sign Strategic Cooperation Treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)
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Putin and Iranian President Sign Strategic Cooperation Treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday signed a 20-year strategic partnership treaty involving closer defense cooperation that is likely to worry the West.

Pezeshkian, on his first Kremlin visit since winning the presidency last July, hailed the signing as an important new chapter in the two countries' relations, while Putin said Moscow and Tehran had many of the same views on international affairs.

"This (treaty) creates better conditions for bilateral cooperation in all areas," said Putin, emphasizing the upside for economic ties and trade, which he said was mostly carried out in the two countries' own currencies.

"We need less bureaucracy and more concrete action. Whatever difficulties are created by others we will be able to overcome them and move forward," Putin added, referring to Western sanctions on both countries.

Putin said Russia regularly informed Iran about what was going on in the Ukraine conflict and that they closely consulted on events in the Middle East and South Caucasus region.

Russia and Iran were the main military allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Moscow after being toppled last month. The West also accuses Iran of providing missiles and drones for Russian attacks on Ukraine. Moscow and Tehran say their increasingly close ties are not directed against other countries.

Putin said work on a potential gas pipeline to carry Russian gas to Iran was progressing despite difficulties, and that, despite delays in building new nuclear reactors for Iran, Moscow was open to potentially taking on more nuclear projects.

Pezeshkian, whose words were translated by Russian state TV, said the treaty would create good opportunities and showed Moscow and Iran did not need to heed the opinion of what he called "countries over the ocean".

"The agreements we reached today are another stimulus when it comes to the creation of a multi-polar world," he said.

CLOSE COOPERATION

Moscow has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other countries hostile towards the US, such as North Korea, since the start of the Ukraine war, and already has strategic pacts with Pyongyang and close ally Belarus, as well as a partnership agreement with China.

Immediate details of the 20-year Russia-Iran agreement were not available but it was not expected to include a mutual defense clause of the kind sealed with Minsk and Pyongyang. It is still likely to concern the West, however, which sees both countries as malign influences on the world stage.

Neither leader mentioned defense cooperation during their Kremlin press conference, but officials from both countries had said earlier that part of the pact focused on defense.

Russia has made extensive use of Iranian drones during the war in Ukraine and the United States accused Tehran in September of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine.

Tehran denies supplying drones or missiles. The Kremlin has declined to confirm it has received Iranian missiles, but has acknowledged that its cooperation with Iran includes "the most sensitive areas".

Russia has supplied Iran with S-300 air defense missile systems in the past and there have been reports in Iranian media of potential interest in buying more advanced systems such as the S-400 and of acquiring advanced Russian fighter jets.

Pezeshkian's visit to Moscow comes at a time when Iran's influence across the Middle East is in retreat with the fall of Assad in Syria and the Israeli pounding of Iran-backed groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The fate of two major Russian military facilities in Syria has been uncertain since the fall of Assad.