Iran’s President Tells Putin NATO’s Expansion Is a Threat to Stability

In a phone call with Russia’s President Putin on Thursday evening, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to support the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling the eastward expansion of NATO "a source of tension," according to Iranian state media.

“The continued expansion of NATO is a serious threat against the stability and security of independent countries in various regions of the world," Mr. Raisi told Mr. Putin, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.

Russia and Iran are occasional military partners and have fought together to defend President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria. They have in recent years deepened diplomatic ties, and the phone call between the two presidents also focused on the ongoing negotiations between world powers in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, which Moscow is also a party to.

(The Wall Street Journal)