Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tehran today to hold negotiations on Syria within the framework of the so-called “Astana format” on Syria.
Before the start of negotiations, he held bilateral meetings with Iranian President Sayed Raisi, Iranian spiritual leader Ali Khamenei and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The Supreme Leader of Iran expressed support for Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine.
“In the case of Ukraine, if you had not taken the initiative, the other side would have started a war on its own initiative. If the road is open to NATO, which knows no borders, and if it had not been stopped in Ukraine, after some time they would have started the same war under the pretext of Crimea,” Khamenei said.
He believes that the US and the West have become weaker, and success in the Middle East has greatly declined. The Iranian leader condemned the US for the occupation and spoke in favor of expelling the Americans from the region.
At the same time, according to Putin’s assistant Yuri Ushakov, the Russian President did not discuss the issue of supplying drones with either the President or the Supreme Leader of Iran.
Today, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the Russian Gazprom signed a Memorandum of Cooperation. This is the largest gas agreement with Russia in the history of Iran.
“The Russians are investing tens of billions of dollars in the development of Iranian oil and gas fields. We signed a document on the development of the Kish gas field and the development of the North Pars gas field,” said Mohsen Khojastemehr, director of the National Iranian Oil Company.
The Russian Gazprom will invest $10 billion, due to which gas production in the country will increase to 100 million cubic meters of gas per day. In addition, according to the memorandum, 6 Iranian oil fields will also be developed by the Russian Gazprom.
At a meeting with Erdogan, Putin noted that not all issues regarding the export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports have yet been resolved, but it is good that there is movement. He highly appreciated Turkey's role in these negotiations. In turn, Erdogan called Russia’s position positive and constructive.
Before the start of negotiations in the Astana format, the President of the Russian Federation announced that the next meeting would be held in Moscow.