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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian may discuss the situation in Syria, the Middle East, and Iran's nuclear programme on Friday, during Pezeshkian's visit to Russia, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
Putin and Pezeshkian are set to sign a long-awaited strategic cooperation agreement on Friday in a move likely to worry the West, which sees both countries as malign influences on the world stage.
A Kremlin statement on the eve of the meeting said relations between Moscow and Tehran were "on the rise and are being developed intensively on the basis of mutual respect and taking account of (their) interests."
The statement said the leaders were likely to discuss key issues, specifically Middle East developments, including in Syria and in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Also on the agenda were events in the Caucasus region and Iran's nuclear programme.
Earlier, Russia's state-owned TASS news agency quoted Iran's ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, as saying the cooperation agreement would not include a mutual-defence clause like pacts Moscow has signed with North Korea and Belarus.
"The nature of this agreement is different. They (Belarus and North Korea) established partnership relations (with Moscow) in a number of areas that we did not particularly touch upon," TASS quoted the ambassador as saying.
"Our country's independence and security, as well as self-reliance, are extremely important. We are not interested in joining any bloc."
Russia and Iran have developed closer relations in recent years, particularly since Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin statement said total trade between the countries climbed 15.5% year-on-year in the first 10 months of 2024.
Ukraine said last year Russia had launched more than 8,000 Iran-developed Shahed drones since the invasion. Kyiv first accused Iran of supplying the drones to Russia in autumn 2022.
(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov and Ron Popeski; Editing by Mark Potter and Rod Nickel)
