Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a cultural forum dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Turkmen poet and philosopher Magtymguly Fragi, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 11, 2024. Photo: Sputnik/Alexander Scherbak/Pool via REUTERS
Iran-Russia Strategic Pact to Last 20 Years, Ambassador Says Ahead of Signing
January 14, 2025
Reprinted from The Algemeiner
A major comprehensive bilateral agreement that Iran and Russia are set to sign later this week will govern the two countries’ relations for the next two decades, according to the Iranian ambassador to Moscow.
“After the agreement is signed, it must be ratified by Iran’s parliament. Once ratified by the parliament, it will be in effect for 20 years,” the Russian state news agency TASS reported Kazem Jalali as saying on Tuesday.
Jalali’s comments came one day after the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will hold talks in Russia on Friday, after which they will sign a long-awaited “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty.”
The two leaders will also discuss “the prospects for further expansion of bilateral cooperation, including in trade, investment, transport, logistics, and culture, as well as current regional and international issues,” according to the Russian statement.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Putin, said on Tuesday that the talks will be held in the Kremlin.
For the past two years, Iran and Russia have been working on the agreement to strengthen cooperation in a wide array of areas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in October that the “treaty on a comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and Iran” will include closer defense cooperation.
Officials from both countries had said in recent months that the deal would be signed in the near future without elaborating.
“In the past, in the times before the Islamic Revolution [in Iran in 1979], agreements were often imposed on us, so we remained in a weak position. But the current document takes into account the interests of both sides,” Jalali reportedly said on Iranian state television on Tuesday, describing the agreement as “balanced.”
Lavrov said on Tuesday that the pact is not aggressive in nature or aimed against anyone.
“This treaty, like, by the way, our treaty with North Korea, is not aimed against any country. It is constructive in nature, geared toward strengthening the potential of both Russia and Iran, and our friends in various parts of the world to develop their economies, resolve social problems and safely ensure defense capabilities,” he told a news conference, according to Russian state-run media.
When asked whether any third parties have ever expressed concern over this treaty, Russia’s top diplomat responded that most Western countries did so, “because they are always looking for some way to show that Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea are plotting something evil against someone.”
The US government had increasingly raised alarm bells about deepening ties among Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China.
Lavrov added that “our presidents will sign this treaty,” dispelling any notion that the agreement won’t cross the finish line.
Russia and Iran have cultivated deeper ties in recent years.
“Economically and culturally, our communications are being strengthened day by day and becoming more robust,” Pezeshkian reportedly told Putin in a meeting in Turkmenistan earlier this year. “The growing trend of cooperation between Iran and Russia, considering the will of the top leaders of both countries, must be accelerated to strengthen these ties.”
Pezeshkian has also committed his country to deeper ties with Russia to counter Western sanctions.
For years, the US and several of its allies, especially in Europe, have imposed sanctions on both Iran and Russia for several reasons, ranging from human rights abuses to aggressive military actions.
In September, for example, the US, Germany, Britain, and France imposed sanctions on Iran for transferring ballistic missiles to Russia for Moscow to use in its ongoing war against Ukraine. Iran denied supplying Russia with the weapons.
Iranian and Russian officials have been working on an international alliance with Russia against US sanctions called the “International Union Against US Sanctions.” An Iranian lawmaker spearheading the effort said last month that it will soon be completed and ready to be put into practice.
RELATED:
Pastor Greg Laurie Warns of Prophetic Significance in Iran-Russia Alliance
Pastor and author Greg Laurie says an alliance between Iran and Russia is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and that the United States must…
October 16, 2024
Reprinted from Crosswalk
Pastor and author Greg Laurie says an alliance between Iran and Russia is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and that the United States must continue to stand by Israel in its battle against terrorism. The pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in California made the comments on TBN’s The Watchman with Erick Stakelbeck as Iran and Russia continue to strengthen their ties. Last Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Turkmenistan, where the two men discussed world affairs and their common bonds, Reuters reported.
Putin told reporters, “We actively work together in the international arena, and our assessments of current events in the world are often very close.” Pezeshkian echoed Putin, saying, “Our positions in the world are much closer to each other than to others.” Russia has criticized Israel’s actions.
Iran funds both Hamas and Hezbollah, two terrorist groups that have attacked Israel in the past year.
The Iranian-Russian alliance is significant not only in world affairs but also prophetically, Laurie said.
“We have Iran as a bona fide ally of Russia,” Laurie said. “And that is something that has only happened recently. And this, of course, was spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel. …He said that the Jewish people would be scattered, which they were. He said they would be re-gathered, which they were. He said they would become a nation, which they have become — May 14, 1948. And so we see their hostility toward Israel in this horrible attack on Oct. 7, with all the proxies of Iran. …But now Hezbollah attacking and the war continuing on.”
It was a “huge mistake” for the United States to send aid to Iran, he added.
“We’ve helped to fund what’s happening right now in Israel,” Laurie said.
Meanwhile, Laurie said he has been shocked by the rise of antisemitism worldwide, particularly on American university campuses.
“I think a lot of these kids protesting in these Ivy League universities — they don’t even know what they’re saying, ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’ Do they know what the river is? Do they know what the sea is? What are they even talking about? I was sitting with a group of Gen Z kids doing a little Bible study recently, and I asked them, ‘Why do you think kids do this?’ And they said they think they’re looking for purpose even more than the cause itself. They just want something to march for, to protest against, something to believe in. And I think that’s really true.”
Is the relatively new alliance between Russia and Iran a fulfillment of Bible prophecy?
I give my answer in this interview with Erik stakelbeck on @TBN pic.twitter.com/qdqRLp9LOm— Greg Laurie (@greglaurie) October 16, 2024
Iran in Bible prophecy and its rise in aggression against Israel
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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