During a trip to Tehran next Tuesday, Putin will participate in a trilateral meeting with the leaders of Iran and Turkey, the so-called Astana format for talks on Syria, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Putin’s visit to Iran will follow US President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia this week, where Iran’s nuclear program and malign activities in the region will be a key topic of discussion. Peskov told reporters that during the visit to Tehran, Putin will also have a separate meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In March, Erdogan helped broker talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives in Istanbul, Turkey. Peskov said there was no discussion of a new round of such negotiations. The White House said Monday it believes Russia is reaching out to Iran to provide it with “hundreds” of drones, including those that can carry weapons, for use in Ukraine. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said it was unclear whether Iran had already provided any of the vehicles to Russia, but said the US had “information” indicating Iran was preparing to train Russian forces to use them in as soon as this month. “Our information indicates that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs on an accelerated schedule,” Sullivan told reporters on Monday, referring to the drones, short for unmanned aerial vehicles. . A spokesman for Iranian Foreign Minister Nasser Kanani did not deny the US claim in comments on Tuesday. “Iran’s cooperation with Russia in some advanced technologies dates back to before the Russia-Ukraine war,” he said. “There hasn’t been any particular development on this issue recently.” Iran has long worked to develop unmanned aerial vehicles, including so-called hovercraft, “kamikaze” drones like the Switchblade that the US has delivered to Ukraine. The US decision to publicly reveal that the two countries’ main regional rival was helping Russia rearm comes as both Israel and Saudi Arabia have resisted global efforts to punish Russia for its actions in Ukraine because of their domestic interests. In Tehran, Mohammadrez Pourebrahimi, head of Iran’s parliament’s economic committee, told state news agency IRNA that Putin’s trip would seek to improve economic relations between the two sanctions-hit nations.
Zeke Miller and Josh Boak in Washington and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
