Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Iran’s new Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri-Kani held a phone conversation May 25, in which Lavrov stressed the continuation of the Russian-Iranian “Strategic Relationship,” and Bagheri-Kani spoke of a “just world order.” The phone conversation appears to point to the fact that the growing Iranian-Russian relations will continue to increase.
Bagheri-Kani succeeded Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian May 20, one day after Amir-Abdollahian and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in northeastern Iran.
Following Lavrov’s expression of condolences, the Russian Foreign Ministry detailed that both Lavrov and Bagheri-Kani “reaffirmed their firm commitment to the unconditional continuation of the course chosen by the leaders of the two countries to form a strategic partnership between Russia and Iran and their readiness to implement all existing agreements and projects in various stages.”
Bagheri-Kani emphasized that “bilateral, regional and international cooperation is being promoted. The path of multilateralism is the strategic choice of Iran and Russia to shape a just world where every actor can play a role based on their capacity,” an idea very much in accord with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s May 16 Joint Statement, “Coordination for a New Era.”
At the May 22 funeral for former President Raisi, held in Tehran, Bagheri-Kani held discussions with the Foreign Ministers of Sudan (which had in 2016 broken off relations with Iran) and Tunisia, which deepened relations with both countries. He also met with the special advisor to the President of Cuba.
Bagheri-Kani and former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi appear to have had close relations. In 2019, after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini appointed Raisi as head of Iran’s Judiciary, Raisi appointed Bagheri-Kani as the head of international affairs of the Judiciary. Upon being elected as President of Iran in 2021, Raisi made Bagheri-Kani Deputy Foreign Minister. In this capacity, Bagheri-Kani attended 15th Russia-Islamic World Kazan Forum held in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia, May 14-19, 2024.