Iran details military ties with Russia and China and comments on Strait of Hormuz situation

Russia and China are providing assistance to Iran in multiple areas, including "military cooperation", Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.

Source: Araghchi in an interview with broadcaster MS NOW on Saturday 15 March, as reported by Politico, a Brussels-based politics and policy news organisation

Details: Araghchi said Russia and China are Tehran's strategic partners during the war with the US and Israel.

Quote: "We have had close cooperation in the past, which still continues, and that includes military cooperation as well."

More details: Araghchi added that Iran has "good cooperation with these countries: politically, economically, even militarily".

Politico notes that US President Donald Trump suggested on Friday that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin may be helping Iran "a bit".

In 2021, Iran signed a 25-year economic cooperation agreement with Beijing focused on the sale of Iran's rich oil reserves to supply China.

In Saturday's interview, Araghchi also touched on the situation in the key maritime route – the Strait of Hormuz, which runs near the coast of Iran and Oman and through which one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies pass. Tensions in the strait have pushed oil prices to more than US$100 per barrel and threaten economic turmoil around the world.

Araghchi said that the strait is closed to tankers and ships belonging to "our enemies, to those who are attacking us and their allies".

"The Strait is not closed. It is only closed to American, Israeli ships and tankers, and not to others," he added.

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