Since February 2022, Russia and Iran have increased their defense and economic cooperation and explored options that could transform the relationship into a broad-based strategic partnership. A new RAND paper describes the factors that drive (and constrain) Russian-Iranian cooperation and examines how the relationship might evolve.
The authors write that while there is still room for Russia and Iran to continue to expand their cooperation, transforming a tactical, transactional relationship into a strategic partnership will be difficult. It is too soon to declare the beginning of a new era for the Russian-Iranian relationship, but it is time to begin thinking about what closer ties between the two states might mean for U.S. operations and strategy.
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