President Masoud Pezeshkian’s recent visit to Moscow aimed to strengthen Iran’s partnership with Russia through the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement. While the document largely appeared to be a bureaucratic summary of the current state of affairs, an intriguing accord was reached on the sidelines. Specifically, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to construct a natural gas pipeline to Iran via Azerbaijan, with a capacity to move volumes of up to 55B cubic meters (bcm) per year. Russia’s Minister of Energy, Sergey Tsivilyov, confirmed that negotiations on the project are in their final stages.

The initiative follows the strategic memorandum signed in June 2024 between Russia’s Gazprom and the National Iranian Gas...