In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian shake hands during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek on September 1, 2026.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday for Moscow’s stance during the Middle East war, in their first meeting since the conflict broke out.
Moscow has massively deepened military and economic ties with Iran since launching its own full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“We appreciate and thank you for your positions at every stage, both during the period when the fighting and acts of aggression were taking place and under normal circumstances, when the United States was imposing sanctions on us, both at the United Nations and in international forums,” Pezeshkian told Putin at a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan.
“This shows that our relationship is a strategic relationship; it is not an ordinary relationship,” he added.
