Putin and Pezeshkian pledge to strengthen bilateral ties between Russia and Iran

8 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President-elect Massoud Pezeshkian have pledged on Monday to strengthen bilateral ties following the victory of the reformist candidate in the presidential election.

“Both sides expressed satisfaction with the high level of good-neighbourly relations between Russia and Iran and confirmed their readiness to work closely to further develop mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields,” the TASS news agency reported in a statement.

Putin congratulated Pezeshkian on his victory in the presidential elections and wished him success in office. For his part, Pezeshkian assured the Russian president that his administration is committed to implementing the agreements already in place with Moscow.

REGIONAL ACTORS

Meanwhile, Hamas political wing chief Ismail Haniyeh also congratulated Pezeshkian. “We send this congratulatory message as the Palestinian nation and its resistance are fighting one of their most important historical battles,” he said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Pezeshkian also referred to another pro-Iranian actor in the region, the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, to whom he conveyed that Tehran “has always supported the resistance of the peoples of the region against the illegitimate Zionist regime.”

The president-elect succeeds ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan last May. He is the first reformist to do so in two decades since Mohamed Khatami.