TEHRAN – Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani has told his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev that cooperation between Tehran and Moscow will lead to more stability in the region.
Shamkhani said the way out of the current critical situation is to put an end to the meddling of trans-regional countries, especially the U.S., through bolstering cooperation among the countries of the region and find indigenous solutions to the crisis.
He called for enhanced cooperation between Iran and Russia which are both targeted by U.S. conspiracies in order to bring down Washington’s illegal and inhuman sanctions regime.
“The expansion of Iran-Russia relations in all fields, especially in the field of security, and the continuation of their joint war against terrorism plays a decisive role in improving regional stability,” Shamkhani said.
He touched on the recent developments in the neighboring Afghanistan, calling for the formation of an all-inclusive government there.
“Given the ethnic and religious composition of the Afghan society, the solution to the crisis in the country is to continue intra-Afghan dialogue and form an inclusive government based on demographic realities of Afghanistan,” he said.
Patrushev, for his part, referred to the third edition of the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan, saying the views of the regional countries with regard to common threats and ways to counter them have become more congruent.
“Regional cooperation is not an option, but an inevitable path to establish sustainable security in the region,” the Russian security chief added.
The third edition of the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue was held with the participation of security chiefs of Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in New Delhi.
Initiated by Iran, the first two rounds took place in Tehran in 2018 and 2019. India was scheduled to host the meeting in 2020 but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.