Russia’s Putin in Iran for talks set to focus on Syria

Since the deal’s announcement, however, Russian Federation has wasted no time in re-energizing relations, declaring immediately that it would unfreeze a contract to supply Iran with advanced anti-aircraft missiles, which the United States fears could prevent a military strike against Iran’s nuclear sites.

A Kremlin spokesman was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that Putin and Khamenei had agreed at their talks that global powers should not impose their political will on Syria.

Mr Putin is in Tehran to attend a summit of gas exporting countries. Putin reportedly made a gift of a rare handwritten Quran to Iran’s leader.

Putin has met with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, in Tehran and is set to have talks with President Hassan Rouhani.

Russia has sharply raised its intensity in recent days on President Vladimir Putin’s orders after it was confirmed that a bomb brought down a Russian plane over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. He also said that Russian Federation plans to increase gas sales to Asia significantly.

Russian Federation began a large-scale bombing campaign against targets in Syria on September 30, in which Moscow says is focused on Islamic State militants.

Both Putin and Khamenei are strong allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian companies can now also carry out activities linked to Iranian exports of enriched uranium of more than 300 kilograms in exchange for the supplies of natural uranium to Iran, the Kremlin decree said.

Russian Federation is emerging as a long-term arms partner for Iran, despite the countries having a complicated history over territory, oil, business and communism.

Russia, which has built Iran’s only functioning nuclear reactor in the southern city of Bushehr, signed an agreement with Iran a year ago to establish as many as eight more. The two countries are backing Assad in a war that has killed more than a quarter of a million people and allowed jihadist groups including Islamic State to spread their influence.

After the meeting Putin stressed that “political negotiations” are the only viable way of reaching a final resolution to the Syrian crisis, but for now, Russia’s air campaign is yielding “positive results”, an assessment that is shared by the Iranian side.

–Bloomberg’s Kambiz Foroohar contributed.