President Vladimir Putin will leave Russia for the second time, since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, as he will travel to Tehran where he will meet with his local counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi and the Turkish one, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the Kremlin, the meeting will be held on July 19.
"President Putin's trip to Tehran is being prepared. There will be a meeting with the heads of the guarantor states of the Astana process, a process aimed at promoting the settlement of the situation in Syria," said Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
"Putin, Raisi and Erdogan will hold a meeting with each other," said Peskov, who said that in addition to the tripartite meeting, there will also be a one-on-one Putin-Erdogan meeting.
The head of the Economic Commission of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammadreza Pour-Ebrahimi, told the Russian news agency, IRNA, that Putin will arrive in Iran to expand economic cooperation between the two states, between which a positive atmosphere has been created.
News of the meeting comes as US security officials have reported that Uranus is planning to supply Russia with military drones to use during its offensive in Ukraine.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said intelligence provided by the US suggested Iran was preparing to train Russian forces to use drones.
Drones have played a major role in the war for both Ukraine and Russia. Just last week, Ukraine called for donations of thousands of drones to help its war effort.
Both sides are using them to spot enemy positions and then help direct and correct artillery fire on a target.
Sullivan also noted that Iranian drones had previously been used by Yemen's Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia.
His comments came ahead of US President Joe Biden's visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia this week. None of the countries have so far joined sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine.