MOSCOW: Russia’s national Security Council secretary on Monday arrived for a visit to Tehran, news agencies reported, amid fears of a wider war in the region following last week’s killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.
Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s ex-defense minister, was set to meet senior military and security officials as well as new President Masoud Pezeshkian to discuss strengthening bilateral cooperation in a wide range of spheres including security, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The visit was on the invitation of his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s local Tasnim news agency reported.
It said the visit had the aim of “strengthening interactions, the examination of regional and international issues, and bilateral political security relations.”
Russia has “strongly condemned” the killing of Haniyeh, the political leader of the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas, in Tehran last month.
Pezeshkian has described Russia as a “valued strategic ally.”
Shoigu was removed as defense minister in May in a major shake-up of Russia’s military leadership, becoming secretary of the Security Council instead.
The visit to one of Russia’s key political allies underlines Shoigu’s continued significant role.
As defense minister, he visited Iran in September last year, while his predecessor at the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, a longstanding ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, visited in late 2022.
Senior Russian official in Tehran to deepen security ties
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Senior Russian official in Tehran to deepen security ties
- Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s ex-defense minister, set to meet senior military and security officials
Iraq announces complete withdrawal of US-led coalition from federal territory
- The vast majority of coalition forces had withdrawn from Iraqi bases under a 2024 deal between Baghdad and Washington
- US and allied troops had been deployed to Iraq and Syria since 2014 to fight the Daesh group
BAGHDAD: Iraq said on Sunday US-led coalition forces had finished withdrawing from bases within the country’s federal territory, which excludes the autonomous northern Kurdistan region.
“We announce today... the completion of the evacuation of all military bases and leadership headquarters in the official federal areas of Iraq of advisers” of the US-led coalition, the military committee tasked with overseeing the end of the coalition’s mission said.
With the withdrawal, “these sites come under the full control of Iraqi security forces,” it said in the statement, adding that they would transition to “the stage of bilateral security relations with the United States.”
The vast majority of coalition forces had withdrawn from Iraqi bases under a 2024 deal between Baghdad and Washington outlining the end of the mission in Iraq by the end of 2025 and by September 2026 in the Kurdistan region.
US and allied troops had been deployed to Iraq and Syria since 2014 to fight the Daesh group, which had seized large swathes of both countries to declare their so-called “caliphate.”
The militant group, also known as “Islamic State,” was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but continues to operate sleeper cells.
The vast majority of coalition troops withdrew from Iraq over previous stages, with only advisers remaining in the country.
The military committee on Sunday said Iraqi forces were now “fully capable of preventing the reappearance of IS in Iraq and its infiltration across borders.”
“Coordination with the international coalition will continue with regards to completely eliminating IS’s presence in Syria,” it added.
It pointed to “the coalition’s role in Iraq offering cross-border logistical support for operations in Syria, through their presence at an air base in Irbil,” the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
In December, two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in Syria in an attack blamed on IS, sparking fears of a resurgence in the country.
The statement added that anti-IS operations would be coordinated with the coalition through the Ain Assad base in Anbar province in western Iraq.
IS attacks in Iraq have massively declined in recent years, but the group maintains a presence in the country’s mountainous areas.
A UN Security Council report in August said: “In Iraq, the group has focused on rebuilding networks along the Syrian border and restoring capacity in the Badia region.”
