On Tuesday evening, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian departed for Moscow, where he will meet with high-ranking Russian officials, including his counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
On Wednesday, Amir-Abdollahian and Lavrov are expected to meet.
Before boarding the plane at the airport in Tehran, the top Iranian ambassador told reporters that the primary purpose of the visit was to halt the conflict in Ukraine.
Without naming them, he stated that some European nations had approached Tehran to play an active part in settling the problem.
Iran, a key regional friend of Russia, has frequently called for a halt to hostilities between Russia and Ukraine but has refrained from condemning Moscow’s seven-month-old military invasion of the former Soviet republic.
A Pentagon spokesman announced earlier on Tuesday that the first cargo of Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles had arrived in Russia.
The official was quoted by Politico as claiming that Russia has received two types of Iranian drones, the Mohajer-6 and Shahed series.
Iran has made no response to the US claim. However, in a July phone chat with his Ukrainian colleague, Iran’s foreign minister dismissed as unfounded rumors that Iran had sent drones to Russia. Amir-Abdollahian stated that events in neighboring Afghanistan and bilateral concerns between Tehran and Moscow will also be discussed during his talks in Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement that the meeting between Amir-Abdollahian and Lavrov will focus on “crossing the finish line” of the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Tehran and Washington are exchanging feedback on the European Union’s fresh draft plan as the negotiations to rescue the deal near their last stages.
Russia, one of the original signatories of the 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers, has played a crucial role in the Vienna discussions to renew the agreement.
Ukraine, Syria, Iran-Russia military cooperation and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) would also be discussed between the two top diplomats, according to the ministry statement. Amir-journey Abdollahian’s to Moscow comes more than two months after Lavrov’s trip to Tehran, during which the two sides highlighted the need for “extensive development of cooperation and engagement.”
