Moscow announces freezing of cooperation agreement with Tehran

Moscow announces freezing of cooperation agreement with Tehran
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August 12, 1445 AH
June 14, 2024 AD
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The Russian Foreign Ministry announced a freeze on the process of developing a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Iran due to differences in positions, which raised questions about the extent of reconciliation between the two countries.
Work on a new agreement to elevate relations between the two countries to the level of strategic cooperation began two years ago, but the complexity of the negotiations delayed its signing.

In an unprecedented move, Zamir Kalov, director of the Second Asian Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, announced that work on concluding a comprehensive cooperation agreement between the two sides would be suspended “due to problems on the Iranian side.”

Kaplov clarified some controversial points but did not reveal enough details. He said: “The project reached a high level of readiness at the beginning of this year, but then the Iranian partners made some changes, which required interdepartmental approval in Russia again.”

However, the presidential administration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow quickly softened Kaplev’s comments. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that work on the agreement was continuing and spoke about the timetable for changing certain matters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explained that half of the agreement had been fully coordinated, noting that Tehran still had to complete several procedural steps to submit the deal for signature.

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