The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, where he delivered a personal message from Iranian Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei regarding the war in Iran and discussed what both sides called “strengthening ties.”
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Iran’s top security official described the meeting as an “extremely important exchange of views”, which focused on “the post-war situation and regional security”.
Russia has long supported Iran and reportedly provided Tehran with intelligence and equipment during the war. Tehran has already supported Russia in its all-out invasion of Ukraine and provided it with its Shahed drone technology.
Moscow has since cloned it into its domestically-made Geran drones, which it routinely uses in its daily strikes against infrastructure and civilian targets in Ukraine.
This meeting, which was not announced in advance, follows the meeting of the Russian president with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in Moscow during the summit of the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries last week.
The content of Khamenei’s message to Putin has not been made public, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported.
“The construction of gas pipelines between Russia and Iran was discussed” during the meeting with Putin, Rezaei said.
He explained that the project aims to help Tehran “deal with its gas shortages, while also facilitating the sale of Russian gas to neighboring countries.”
Although Iran is a major producer of natural gas, it has long suffered from fuel shortages, a crisis that has only intensified since Iran’s war began in late February.
According to Tehran, during the most intense phase of the war – which lasted almost 40 days – the United States and Israel launched strikes against critical Iranian infrastructure, including gas processing plants.
Iran responded by attacking what it said were U.S. military installations and other interests in the broader Middle East region. Regional governments, witnesses on the ground and Euronews journalists reported that the strikes also hit civilian targets and infrastructure.
Both sides also imposed simultaneous blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global gas and oil trade.
In early October, Putin said Russia was ready to play the role of mediator to help end the war. Moscow did not play the role of intermediary in the negotiations. Pakistan and Qatar have so far played the role of main mediators.
Rezaei noted that Putin emphasized the need for regional security mechanisms and asserted that “any interference by external powers” in resolving the situation in the Middle East is unacceptable.
Russia has delayed, diverted to kyiv or rejected any attempts to end its ongoing war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year.
Infrastructure and loans
According to Rezaei, the meeting also discussed progress in major bilateral infrastructure projects. “The Supreme National Security Council approved the executive agreement for the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway, with Russian participation,” he said, quoted by the Iranian news agency IRNA.
“The Minister of Roads and Urban Development will soon sign this contract on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Rezaei added.
Stretching just over 160 kilometers, this stretch represents the final missing link on the western route of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), intended to provide a direct connection between Russia and Iranian ports on the Persian Gulf.
News reports citing Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said Russia had finalized preparations to give Iran a $1 billion loan, although the transfer of funds was delayed.
According to Fars, this billion dollars is intended to constitute the first tranche of a planned Russian loan of 20 billion dollars to Iran.
Some experts have linked the delay in the disbursement of these funds specifically to the stalled progress of the Rasht-Astara railway project.
“We are ready to provide the necessary credit resources,” Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club on October 1.
“The question is that our Iranian friends finish their part of the job at this point.”
After the meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning urging Russians to avoid traveling to Iran and the Middle East while the risk of a resumption of war persists.
The Russian Foreign Ministry had previously advised Russian citizens against traveling to Persian Gulf countries for tourism purposes – particularly in February, just before the United States and Israel launched their attacks on Iran in the first salvo of the war.
That advisory was lifted in June after Washington and Iran signed an interim deal, which has since failed.
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