This week, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Tehran. Prior to the meeting, Lavrov said that Russia would honor its economic agreements with Iran despite its “challenging situation.” In essence, Moscow is reaffirming its commitment to cooperation with Iran.
This comes as the relationship between Ukraine and the US is facing a crisis. US President Donald Trump has become increasingly critical of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky. Meanwhile, the US has offered sanctions relief to Russia.
The US appears to be gearing up for a possible escalation with Iran. Trump has officially endorsed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hinting that the war with Iran would continue only if Netanyahu remained in power.
As such, Lavrov’s arrival in Iran comes at a key moment. It follows reports that the US Secretary of War made a trip to Israel. It also comes as Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, arrived in Tehran on Tuesday. Given these developments, Iran clearly feels that it is in the driver’s seat when it comes to movement in the region.
Russia, for its part, hopes that the US will abandon Ukraine. Iran and Russia will both try to exploit the upcoming US elections.
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has met and held talks with the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” a post on the Iranian president’s Telegram channel said.
Russian state media was relatively quiet on the trip, however. TASS news in Moscow noted that “Lavrov and Pezeshkian discussed bilateral relations as well as recent regional and international developments. They also exchanged views on strengthening cooperation between Tehran and Moscow.”
“Iran’s struggle against the aggression unleashed upon it is a ‘just cause,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a joint news conference after talks with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi,” TASS noted. “According to the top Russian diplomat, neither Kiev nor its European sponsors are ready for talks. Russia has never targeted Ukrainian infrastructure that is not used for terror attacks on Russia, he stressed.”
Lavrov calls Iran's war with US and Israel a just cause
Lavrov said: “People should not have to suffer because of events that occur against their will… Therefore, I am confident that Iran’s cause – much like Russia’s – is a just cause.”
Russia said that it “is ready to help look for ways to settle the conflict between the United States and Iran.”
Lavrov said: “We analyzed the situation that had emerged as a result of an unprovoked US-Israeli aggression against Iran. I once again outlined our country’s readiness to render assistance in searching for mutually acceptable solutions to resolve this artificially created crisis.”
Russia is prepared to honor its economic agreements with Iran. “Speaking at a joint news conference in Tehran, Lavrov said that Russian-Iranian cooperation is developing dynamically despite ‘known circumstances,’ supported by a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty that entered into force last year,” Turkey’s news agency Anadolu noted.
Turkey is keenly interested in any and all Iranian developments, as it has hedged its bets on the conflict. Turkey also has amicable ties with both Ukraine and Russia.
Of interest is Moscow’s continued role in rail links and Iran’s nuclear program. The report noted that Lavrov said that Russian specialists are gradually returning to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, noting “significant prospects in the field of hydrocarbon extraction and redistribution.” Anadolu noted that Lavrov said that Russian contractors continued to work on the planned Rasht-Astara railway.
“Despite the challenging situation… Russia has no intention of abandoning the implementation of agreements with Iran in the economic and investment spheres,” Lavrov said.
Russia sees its work with Iran as part of its larger attempt to change the world order. And Russia will exploit both the Ukraine and Iran wars to get what it wants. Over the past 15 years, meetings between senior Iranian and Russian officials have demonstrated the steady expansion of Tehran-Moscow ties from pragmatic cooperation to a strategic partnership.
Lavrov previously worked with Iran on 2015 nuclear agreement
Lavrov worked closely with then-Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the negotiations that produced the 2015 nuclear agreement. He continued regular talks with Zarif afterward, including talks in Tehran in April 2021 covering the nuclear issue, Syria, and bilateral relations.
Under then-Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, Lavrov developed a similar relationship with then-foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. He met with Amir-Abdollahian in Moscow in October 2021 and subsequently discussed Afghanistan, Syria, the Caucasus, economic cooperation, and the nuclear agreement.
More recently, Lavrov has repeatedly met with Araghchi. In February 2025, Lavrov visited Tehran and met both Araghchi and Pezeshkian. Araghchi then visited Moscow in April, where he met Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin and delivered a message from former Iranian leader Ali Khamenei.
Putin’s contacts with Iran have similarly advanced. He held numerous meetings with former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, including during Putin’s 2015 and 2017 visits to Tehran and a meeting in Yerevan in 2019. Raisi later met Putin in Moscow in January 2022. Six months later, Putin again traveled to Tehran, meeting Raisi and Khamenei as Russia increased its support for Iran.
Pezeshkian continued on this trajectory, meeting with Putin in 2024 before traveling to Moscow in January 2025 to sign a comprehensive treaty. The agreement institutionalized expanding political, economic, and security cooperation.