Russia has nearly completed the required procedures to sign a new bilateral treaty with Iran soon, state news agency TASS quoted top security official Sergei Shoigu as saying on Tuesday.
"We look forward to the imminent conclusion of a new basic interstate treaty. We are completing the internal procedures necessary for the preparation of documents for signing by the presidents," Shoigu said.
Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other states hostile towards the United States, such as North Korea, in the two and a half years since the start of the Ukraine war.
The United States accuses both countries of aiding Russia's war effort, something Moscow denies. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier on Tuesday that Russia had received ballistic missiles from Iran and was likely to use them within weeks.
A senior Iranian official on Monday denied reports that Tehran had supplied Moscow with such missiles.
Russia has said for some time that it intends to sign a major partnership treaty with the Islamic Republic, but Shoigu's statement was the strongest sign yet that such a deal is imminent.
US says Russia received missiles from Iran, piles on sanctions
Daphne Psaledakis
Russia has received ballistic missiles from Iran and will likely use them in Ukraine within weeks, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday, warning that cooperation between Moscow and Tehran threatens wider European security.
At a news conference in London ahead of a visit to Kyiv he and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy will make, Blinken said Washington had privately warned Iran that providing ballistic missiles to Russia would be "a dramatic escalation" and said new sanctions would be imposed later on Tuesday.
"Russia has now received shipments with these ballistic missiles, and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine, against Ukraine," Blinken said, citing intelligence that he said has been shared with U.S. allies and partners around the world.
The U.S. later identified nine Russian-flagged vessels it said were involved in the delivery of weapons from Iran to Russia, designating them as "blocked property" under Washington's sanctions regime, according to the Treasury Department's website.
It also imposed additional measures on previously sanctioned airline Iran Air, the department said in a statement.
Blinken said Iran has trained dozens of Russian military personnel to use its Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 75 miles (121 km).
Russian defense ministry representatives are believed to have signed a contract in December with Iranian officials for the Fath-360 and another Iranian ballistic missile system, Reuters reported last month.
Iran has previously supplied Shahed drones used by Russia in Ukraine, but has denied that it is supplying Russia with ballistic missiles. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani on Tuesday said on X that Iran views the reports as "ugly propaganda" to conceal Western military support to Israel.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to confirm the reports but told reporters Russia was cooperating with Iran including on "the most sensitive" areas.
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