DUBAI: Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu will visit Tehran on Tuesday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, adding that he would meet top Iranian officials.
Since the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Tehran and Moscow have deepened their bilateral ties, notably in the military sphere.
Tasnim added that Shoigu would discuss defense cooperation and regional developments with top Iranian officials, including his Iranian counterpart.
On Tuesday, Azerbaijan said its armed forces had launched what it called “local anti-terrorist activities” in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to restore constitutional order by disarming and forcing the withdrawal of Armenian military formations there.
Iran borders both Azerbaijan and Armenia, and has called upon Baku and Yerevan to uphold a 2020 cease-fire backed by Russia.
Last month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia’s military cooperation with Iran would not succumb to geopolitical pressure, following a report that Washington had asked Tehran to stop selling drones to Moscow.
Iran’s air force received in recent weeks the delivery of two Russian Yak-130 pilot training fighters, Tasnim said.
Tehran has acknowledged sending drones to Russia but said in the past that they were sent before Russia’s invasion in Ukraine. Moscow has denied its forces have used Iranian drones in Ukraine.
Russia’s defense minister to visit Tehran on Tuesday
https://arab.news/r4e7u
Russia’s defense minister to visit Tehran on Tuesday
- Sergei Shoigu to discuss defense cooperation and regional developments with top Iranian officials, including his Iranian counterpart
Costa Rica says plot to assassinate president uncovered
- Security services unveiled that a hitman had been paid to assassinate president Rodrigo Chaves
SAN JOSE: Costa Rica’s government on Tuesday said it had uncovered a plot to assassinate President Rodrigo Chaves on the eve of national elections, in which his right-wing party is tipped for victory.
Jorge Torres, head of the Central American nation’s Directorate of Intelligence and National Security, cited a “confidential source” as informing the agency that a hitman had been paid to attack Chaves.
The purported plot comes two weeks before the country holds presidential and parliamentary elections.
Chaves, who is barred by the constitution from seeking a second consecutive term, has backed one of his former ministers, Laura Fernandez, to succeed him.
Opposition groups have warned against what they see as possible interference in the election from the iron-fisted president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.
Chaves has invited Bukele to Costa Rica on Wednesday to lay the founding stone of a new mega-prison modelled on El Salvador’s brutal Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Thousands of young men are being held without charge in CECOT, as part of Bukele’s war on gang violence.
