Senior Russian Senator Declares New Stage in Tehran-Moscow Military Ties

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee Senator Ziyad Sabsabi underlined friendly relations between Tehran and Moscow, and said the two countries have started a new chapter in their military ties, AVA Diplomatic reports.

“Tehran and Moscow have always had close and friendly relations and the military ties between the two countries have entered a new era,” Sabsabi said in an interview with the Kuwaiti al-Anba newspaper on Wednesday.

He underlined that Iran and Russia have always enjoyed good relations.

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan announced in April that Tehran and Moscow are determined to further reinvigorate their cooperation in defense and military fields.

Iran and Russia have drawn up plans for technical and military cooperation, Dehqan said on the sidelines of the 2016 Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) at the time.

On August 16, 2016, Russia’s Tu-23M3 long-range bombers and Su-34 bombers, having taken off from their base in Hamadan (Western Iran), carried out group airstrikes against targets belonging to the ISIL and Fatah al-Sham terrorist groups in the provinces of Aleppo, Deir Ezzur and Idlib in Syria.

Russian Ambassador to Tehran Levan Dzhagaryan underlined that his country is not after setting up a permanent military base in Iran, adding that Moscow’s fighter jets will continue anti-terrorism flights to Syria from the Western Iranian airbase if necessary.

“Russia has not been after establishing a military base in Iran and the presence of the Russian fighter jets in Iran was temporary and based on the permission of the Islamic Republic’s senior officials, that is the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC),” Dzhagaryan said last month.