Iran seeks Russian support amid longstanding military cooperation

Relations between Iran and Russia are extensive in terms of military cooperation, says Foad Izadi, associate professor at the University of Tehran. This comes as Iran’s FM Araghchi arrived in Russia this morning for meetings including with President Putin. “Iran’s air defence systems are not at the level that they need to be. So I think Iran is hoping that Russia could help on that issue,” he told Al Jazeera. “Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council. It vetoed a Bahrain-US resolution against Iran a couple of weeks ago. So Iran wants to make sure it is on board politically and can help Iran in places like the Security Council,” he added.