Russia Teases ‘Big Treaty’ with Iran

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a press conference on Wednesday that Moscow is preparing to sign a “big treaty with Iran.”

She implied the Iran treaty might be even more expansive than the security pact Russia signed with North Korea, which caused great alarm among the free world and considerable unease in China.

“Now we are working on a treaty — probably you have heard about it, and I ask you once again not to use the formula ‘the same as the one with North Korea’ — now the work is underway on the big treaty with Iran,” Zakharova said.

Several other Russian officials previously hinted that a deal with Iran that has been at least two years in the making could be signed soon. Both the Iranian and Russian foreign ministers declared their commitment to finalize an agreement at the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Nizhny Novgorod in June. BRICS is an economic bloc headed by China and Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the BRICS meeting that as soon as a few final steps were taken in Iran, “we can do this.” Iran made comments around the same time that indicated there was no problem or delay on its end.

On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said a comprehensive agreement would be signed with Iran “in the very near future,” and the text of the agreement is “already close to completion.”

On the same day, Russia’s Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) to supply Russian gas to Iran. Gazprom has been desperately seeking customers to replace the European suppliers it lost after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Russia and Iran already have a strategic agreement, which was signed in 2001 and was extended for five years in 2020. The new pact has been touted as a substantial upgrade to that agreement.

Zakharova said, in January 2024, that the leaders of Iran and Russia would “meet in the near future” to sign an agreement that was “currently being finalized.” In the time since she made that comment, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash. Iran will hold a sham election on Friday to install his replacement.