TEHRAN — Iran's President
Ebrahim Raisi is preparing
to visit Russia following an invitation from his counterpart
Vladimir Putin, an
Iranian government spokesman said Tuesday, a first since 2017.
اضافة اعلان
Putin has invited Raisi to Moscow early next year "in
the framework of strategic interaction between Iran and Russia", said Ali
Bahadori Jahromi.
It will be Raisi's most important official visit abroad
since he took over the presidency in August from moderate Hassan Rouhani, who
had travelled to Russia in March 2017.
"I hope that the president of Iran will accept my
invitation and visit Russia early next year," Putin had told a joint news
conference with the Greek premier earlier this month, according to the
Kremlin's official website.
Moscow and Tehran have strong political, economic and
military ties, shared interests in Afghanistan, and are key allies of Syrian
President
Bashar Al-Assad in his country's decade-long civil war.
Russia is also one of the parties to the 2015 nuclear deal
between Iran and world powers that gave Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for
curbs on its
nuclear program.
Bahadori Jahromi said the visit would address
"bilateral, regional and national cooperation" and in particular
"economic and commercial" cooperation.
Moscow and has been taking part in negotiations to revive
the nuclear deal after then president Donald Trump withdrew the US in 2018 and
began reimposing sanctions, prompting Iran to wind back some of its
commitments.
In September, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said
sanctions reimposed on Iran "should be lifted as part of the restoration
of the nuclear deal", adding that Iran "should not suffer from
unilateral US measures".
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