News - Middle East: Russia’s Foreign Ministry says Moscow and Tehran plan to speed up work on a “major new interstate agreement” as the two long-time allies forge closer bilateral relations.

The Russian Foreign Ministry broke the news in a short statement on Tuesday and said the two countries' foreign ministers had agreed in a phone call to expedite work on the agreement, which was at "a high stage of readiness.”
The statement did not detail the scope of the agreement, but it comes amid growing political, trade and military ties between Moscow and Tehran, both of which are under US sanctions and opposed to Western unilateralism.
In 2001, Tehran and Moscow signed a 10-year cooperation deal that was lengthened to 20 years through two five-year extensions.
The two countries are planning to ink a document on bilateral long-term strategic cooperation, which may determine their future relations for the next twenty years.
Last week, Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi and his Russian counterpart held extensive talks in the Kremlin, with Vladimir Putin lauding Tehran-Moscow ties as "very good."
"We have very good relations with Iran. And we will enhance them in every possible way... That is why we do our utmost in order to develop relations with Iran, and will keep this up in the future," Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Putin as saying.