Russian and Iranian leaders meet amid escalating Middle East conflict
Russian President Vladimir Putin was meeting his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian for the first time on Friday, as relations between the two sanctioned nations warm and the Middle East braces for Israel’s response to Tehran’s largest-ever missile attack last week.
The meeting at a regional summit in Ashgabat, the capital of the Central Asian country Turkmenistan, also comes against a backdrop of closer military ties between Iran and Russia’s military in recent years, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Iran has supplied thousands of “Shahed” attack drones to Russia, and according to US officials, built a drone factory in Russia. Iran also recently transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia to use in the war against Ukraine, CNN reported in September, marking a significant escalation in the country’s support for Moscow.
“Since Ukraine, the two countries have been more equal in terms of both needing each other and relying each other on specific issues. And that, I think, has been seen as beneficial from the Iranian side,” said Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, senior analyst and associate fellow, at UK think tank Chatham House.
Moscow and Tehran have a de facto military alliance in the region to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Analysts say the countries have found further common ground as they are increasingly isolated by global sanctions.
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