Russia Says Will Boost Military-Technical Ties With Iran After Sanctions Lifted

Russia says it will boost military-technical cooperation with Iran once international arms embargo on Tehran are lifted following successful talks on the Iranian nuclear deal, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday, Sputnik news reports.

“Following the cancellation of the arms embargo, this cooperation will be implemented and will grow in time,” Ryabkov told reporters in Moscow, adding that there were prospects for a close cooperation with Iran in the nuclear energy sector, according to the report.

“As a result of potential nuclear deal with Iran, no similar precedents, which could affect the regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, should take place in the international system,” Ryabkov stated, according to the report.

The diplomat said that the deal shouldn’t be used as a reference point in similar situations, as well as it shouldn’t lead to large-scale inspections and monitoring.

Ryabkov said that the `world is not going to end’ if the talks on the Iranian nuclear program result in failure by the deadline, but negotiations should not be dragged out endlessly.

Ties between the two nations have been increasingly growing:

On January 20, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan signed an intergovernmental agreement on “long term and multifaceted” military cooperation in Tehran.  This was the first time in 15 years that a Russian defense minister had visited Iran.

Also in late January Iran’s Ambassador to Russia announced that the two nations plan to create a joint bank for transactions in their national currencies.

Russia, who built Iran’s first nuclear power plant in its southern port of Bushehr, signed a deal last November to build two more nuclear reactors, which could be followed by another six reactors.

Also in November, the Russian State Railroads Company announced plans to build a railway link from Russia, across Azerbaijan, to Iran. An intergovernmental agreement on building the railway is expected to be signed in July of this year and the Russian firm said that it will foot the bill for the project.