Putin and Raisi celebrate their friendship at a critical juncture in the Iran nuclear deal.

MOSCOW (AFP) – During a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi praised bilateral ties as pressure increases for a vote on the Iran nuclear agreement.

Raisi stated that he had handed draught agreements on strategic cooperation to Moscow, which would cement collaborative collaboration for the next two decades.

“We in Iran have no limitations when it comes to improving ties with Russia,” the Iranian president declared during his first state visit since taking office in August.

He stated that Tehran wished to establish ties with Moscow that would be “permanent and strategic,” rather than “temporary.”

“Today’s extraordinary circumstances need tremendous cooperation between our two nations in the face of US unilateralism,” he stated on television.

Putin hailed the nations’ “close collaboration” on the world scene, saying it was “very essential for me to know your position on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”

The 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers – the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, and Germany – promised Tehran respite from punishing international sanctions in exchange for significant limitations on its nuclear programme.

However, former President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the agreement in 2018 prompted Tehran to backtrack on its commitments.

Talks to re-establish the agreement resumed last year but were halted in June when Iran elected Raisi. They were then reintroduced in November.

This is the ultraconservative president’s first major foreign trip since taking over in August from the moderate Hassan Rouhani, who was the previous Iranian president to visit Russia in March 2017.

Moscow and Tehran have extensive political, economic, and military relations, as well as common interests in Afghanistan. They are also important supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country’s decade-long civil conflict.