TEHRAN: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due in Iran Wednesday for talks on boosting trade and energy cooperation as the two countries grapple with Western economic sanctions.
Tehran and Moscow both have huge oil and gas reserves but are constrained by sanctions that limit their ability to export their output.
“Lavrov will meet our foreign minister (Hossein Amir-Abdollahian) tomorrow (Thursday),” Iran’s official IRNA news agency said.
Russia was slapped with sanctions following its February invasion of neighboring Ukraine, while Iran’s economy has been reeling under biting sanctions reimposed by the US in 2018, following Washington’s withdrawal from a nuclear accord between Tehran and major powers.
Russia played a key role in that deal, taking charge of Iran’s excess enriched uranium stocks beyond those permitted under the agreement.
It has been party to stumbling talks between Iran and the powers on reviving the 2015 deal with renewed US participation.
The negotiations have been stalled since March amid sharp differences between Tehran and Washington on the US sanctions that would be lifted in exchange for Iran’s return to full compliance with the agreed limits to its nuclear activities.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi visited Moscow in January, and said he had presented his counterpart Vladimir Putin with draft documents on strategic cooperation that would cement collaboration for the next two decades.
In late May, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak visited Tehran at the head of a large delegation after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent global oil and gas prices soaring.
Russia FM heads to Iran for talks
https://arab.news/bd5ud
Russia FM heads to Iran for talks
- Tehran and Moscow both have huge oil and gas reserves but are constrained by sanctions that limit their ability to export their output
Syrian forces enter Hasakah after SDF releases Daesh detainees
- Army units are securing Al-Shaddadi prison and its surrounding areas while pursuing the arrests of Daesh detainees
- The Syrian army said it holds the SDF fully responsible for the release of Daesh components
LONDON: The army of the Syrian Arab Republic launched sweeping operations south of Hasakah in the country’s northeast to arrest members of the Daesh terror group on Monday after the Syrian Democratic Forces released them from a prison in the town of Al-Shaddadi.
The army’s Operations Command announced that its units were securing Al-Shaddadi prison and its surrounding areas while also pursuing the arrests of Daesh detainees. The prison and Al-Shaddadi’s security facilities will be handed over to the Ministry of Interior immediately upon completion of security operations, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
Syrian military leaders contacted mediators and SDF officials to transfer control of the prison and its perimeter to the government’s internal security forces, but SDF leaders declined, according to SANA.
The Syrian army said it holds the SDF fully responsible for the release of Daesh components from Al-Shaddadi prison, emphasizing that army units would implement necessary measures to restore security in the area.
Syrian forces began deploying across the Jazira region on Monday to secure it under an agreement between the Syrian state and the SDF.
