Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will visit Moscow soon to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. The trip will be focused on improving economics and growing trade between the two countries. The leaders expect to sign 11 new trade deals between the two nations.
Russia has been front and center over the last several years in the effort to remove sanctions from Iran under the ‘nuclear deal’ negotiated by the Obama administration and other world power. Since that deal was put in place, Russia has sold large amounts of armaments and technology to the Islamic Republic and is in position to benefit great from Iran receiving billions in frozen assets from sanctions relief. Iran also wants to sell large amounts of oil to Russia, most likely for payment for additional weapon sales.
Trade relations between Iran and Russia experienced a 60 percent increase in 2016 amounting to about $2 billion, following the lifting of the sanctions over Iran as part of the nuclear deal it signed with world powers, reports Israel National News.
Rouhani is expected to be accompanied on his trip to Russia by several senior ministers, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Iran-Russia Joint Economic Committee Chairman Mahmoud Vazi.
The meeting will be the ninth between the two leaders. They will also discuss the situation in the Middle East and Syria.
