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Russia’s Security Council chief discusses military cooperation, Syria with Iranian envoy

Ali Akbar Velayati EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Ali Akbar Velayati
© EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev discussed bilateral military and technical cooperation and the Syria situation with Adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Akbar Velayati on Tuesday.

"The sides discussed some aspects of strengthening bilateral economic relations in the energy, military and technical spheres," the Security Council’s press office reported.

"Nikolai Patrushev and Ali Akbar Velayati discussed the prospects of Russian-Iranian interaction in ensuring regional and international security, the situation in Syria and in the Middle East as a whole," the Security Council said in a statement.

The counsellor to the Iranian supreme leader is on a visit to Moscow on the invitation from Director of the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies Leonid Reshetnikov. The program of the visit envisages a number of meetings with Russian high-placed officials.

In particular, Velayati has already met with Special Representative of the Russian president for Syria and ambassador-at-large Alexander Lavrentyev to discuss the struggle against terrorism and the settlement of the Syrian crisis.

During the talks in Moscow, the sides will discuss the issue of Iran’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Iran currently has the observer status at the SCO.

Ali Akbar Velayati is one of the most experienced Iranian diplomats who held the post of the foreign minister for almost 16 years (1981-1997) and continues to be one of the most influential politicians in the Islamic Republic largely determining Iran’s foreign policy course.