19 December AFP
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Russia's lower house of parliament
ratified a new partership treaty with Iran on Wednesday in a
near-unanimous vote despite growing international concerns about
military links between the two countries.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told the
State Duma that relations between Moscow and Tehran had entered a
"new era" following Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's visit to
Moscow in March.
"The key areas of our cooperation will be in the
military-technological sphere and the peaceful use of the nuclear
atom," Losyukov said moments before the Duma ratified the treaty,
signed between Khatami and President Vladimir Putin on March 12, by
a 380-1 vote.
Losyukov added that Russia's controversial construction of the
Bushehr nuclear power plant marked a "symbol of the new stage of
cooperation" between the two countries.
Losyukov added that trade volume between Russia and Iran should
top one billion rubles (around 33 million dollars) this year.
Russia last year scrapped an agreement with the United States
barring future arms sales to Iran and Putin and Khatami signed a
broad-ranging cooperation treaty in Moscow shortly thereafter.
The treaty commits Russia and Iran not to use force or the
threat of force against each other, and to prevent either country
being used to harbor "aggression, subversive or separatist acts
against the other."
On October 2, Moscow and Tehran further signed a military
cooperation agreement in a deal that, according to estimates, could
bring Russia around 400 million dollars in sales of its medium-range
air defense systems and other arms.