Russia's Putin Visits Iran

Iranian officials welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Tehran in the lead up to a trilateral summit which will include Azerbaijan. While economic cooperation was at the top of Putin's agenda, bilateral discussions between Russia and Iran concerning regional security issues as well as the fight against terrorist groups in Syria dominated the talks, according to Al-Jazeera.

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Putin met with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the country's President Hassan Rouhani. A 30-billion dollar oil and gas project was signed between the National Iranian Oil Company, NIOC, and Rosneft, Russia's state-owned oil company during his stay in the country.

Mostafa Khosh Cheshm, an Iranian political analyst and head of FARS news agency, stated: "The Russians have now come to realize that if they have a true partner in this part of the world, it is Iran."

Alluding to Russian and Iranian collaboration which has dealt victories and significant blows to terrorist groups operating in Syria and Iraq, Khosh Cheshm noted that "Russia has revived its lost role. Once it was the former Soviet Union. It decomposed, it collapsed, and it lost everything. Now it's back on the stage. It's rising as a regional power that is soon going to be one of the world powers again."

He went on to state that the leaders of Iran “have come to realize they need to pick up Russia and China as their strategic partners. The same approach was in place with President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad."

Khosh Cheshm also stressed that “in foreign policy, we never have everlasting friends and everlasting enemies.” However, he concluded that “Iran and Russia are developing their strategic ties, and I believe they are in their spring. There is much time left to their winter. They're just at the beginning."