SpaceWar.com reports: “The Iranian parliament ratified a 20-year strategic partnership treaty with Russia on Wednesday, state media reported, consolidating closer ties between the two countries amid growing tensions with the West.

The deal, which was signed by Presidents Masoud Pezeshkian and Vladimir Putin in January, was already ratified by Russia’s State Duma last month.

It passed the Iranian parliament with 191 votes in favour, eight against and three abstentions among the 212 members present, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.

The treaty provides for joint efforts to counter common security threats but stops short of a mutual defence agreement.

Putin has called the treaty a ‘breakthrough document’, while Pezeshkian said it would ‘open a new chapter in relations’.

Iran and Russia have expanded military collaboration in recent years, with Tehran accused by Kyiv and Western governments of supplying drones and missiles used in Russia’s war in Ukraine…”