Iran's supreme leader, at a meeting with Russian President Putin in Tehran on Monday, said U.S. policies in the region were a threat to both countries and called for closer ties between Tehran and Moscow.
"The Americans have a long-term plot and are trying to dominate Syria and then the whole region...This is a threat to all countries, especially Russia and Iran," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said at the meeting on the sidelines of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Summit in Tehran, according to the state news agencies.
"The United states is trying to achieve its failed military objectives in Syria now through political means," he added, referring to proposed peace talks to end the civil war in Syria.
Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin has eased an export ban on nuclear equipment and technology to Iran, a Kremlin decree published on Monday showed, after Tehran struck a deal with world powers on its nuclear programme in July.
The decree, issued on the same day as Putin arrived in Iran on an official visit, said Russian firms were now authorized to export hardware and to provide financial and technical advice to help Iran with three specific tasks.
They were listed as helping it modify two cascades at its Fordow uranium enrichment plant, supporting Iranian efforts to export enriched uranium in exchange for raw uranium supplies, and helping Iran modernize its Arak heavy water reactor.
Iran's ambassador to Russia said on Monday that Moscow had started the procedure of supplying Tehran with S-300 anti-missile rocket system, according to the Tasnim news agency.
Russia and Iran signed a contract for Moscow to supply Tehran with S-300 surface-to-air missile systems on November 9.
"Iran and Russia signed a new contract and the procedure of delivery of S-300 has started," Iran's Ambassador to Russian Mehdi Sanaei was quoted as saying by Tasnim.
