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EXPERT COMMENT

Candidates to be Iran’s next president are quick to play down the special friendship that was sought by president Raisi.

Iran’s presidential election on 28 June has underlined the uncertainty surrounding the future shape of relations between Tehran and Moscow. The two main supporters of rapprochement with Russia were the president Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who were both killed in a helicopter crash in May.

Their deaths came before the two countries had managed to institutionalize relations in the form of a new long-term partnership agreement. Whether the next president will be equally interested in developing Iran’s relationship with Russia is a key question.

For now, the current vector of Iranian–Russian relations appears unchanged. Both the acting president Mohammad Mokhber and acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri talk about the long-term and strategic nature of relations between the two countries. 

However, the main candidates in the presidential race are all signalling that their priorities are relieving sanctions and improving the economy – not a special relationship with Moscow.

Click here to continue reading the full version of this Expert Comment on the Chatham House website.