Major Russia-Iran treaty remains on track – president-elect

The finalization of the cooperation agreement was paused due to death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last May

Iranian President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian has told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that a stalled comprehensive cooperation treaty between the two nations will soon be signed, according to local media.

The proposed deal was intended to bolster bilateral relations but progress was paused after Pezeshkian’s predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi, was killed in a helicopter crash in May. The incoming leader of the Iranian government, who was elected last week, promised progress on Monday after Putin called to congratulate him on his victory.

The new government will follow up on the work done by Raisi’s cabinet, the president-elect told Putin, as reported by ISNA news agency on Tuesday. He expects the finalized treaty to be signed on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, which Russia will host in Kazan in October. BRICS is a group of non-Western economies that promote a new multipolar world order.

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Russian officials previously said the text of the document had been fully agreed by both parties. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that, before it could be signed, “some procedural legislative actions need to be taken by the Islamic Republic of Iran on the issues fixed in the treaty.”

During their conversation, Pezeshkian assured Putin that his government remained committed to developing ties with Eurasian integration organizations, such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Iran joined the latter in 2022, while last week the security group welcomed Belarus as its tenth permanent member.

Pezeshkian won the presidential election in a runoff last weekend, getting three million more votes than Saeed Jalili, the other contender. The 69-year-old politician, who served as health minister in the 2000s, comes from the family of an Iranian-Azerbaijani father and an Iranian-Kurdish mother. He has called for moderation in some domestic policies, such as the dress code for women. His inauguration is set to take place in early August.