Iran’s President to attend BRICS summit in Russia

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian will attend the upcoming BRICS summit in Russia, state media cited Tehran’s ambassador in Moscow as saying on Sunday, amid tensions with the West over military cooperation between the two countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that Russia had received ballistic missiles from Iran and was likely to use them in Ukraine within weeks. Cooperation between Moscow and Tehran threatened wider European security, he said.

The United States, Germany, Britain and France on Tuesday imposed new sanctions on Iran, including measures against its national airline Iran Air.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that Tehran did not deliver any ballistic missiles to Russia and that sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the three European countries against Iran were not a solution.

Iran’s ambassador in Russia Kazem Jalali confirmed on Sunday that Pezeshkian will attend the summit of the BRICS group of major emerging economies, scheduled to be held in Kazan, Russia from Oct. 22 to 24, according to Iran’s state media.

Pezeshkian will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin there, Jalali said.

Iran and Russia are set to sign a bilateral comprehensive cooperation agreement.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Elwely Elwelly; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)