Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iran's top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, at the Kremlin on Thursday 5 November, in talks centred on ending the war between Iran and the United States and Israel and on deepening energy ties between Moscow and Tehran.

Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, delivered a written message from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei to Putin, according to Iranian state media. The contents of the letter have not been disclosed, and neither Moscow nor Tehran has published a detailed account of what was agreed.

Rezaei said after the meeting, which lasted more than three hours, that the two sides discussed regional security arrangements for the period after the war and plans to build a gas pipeline from Russia to Iran. The project is intended to ease Iran's domestic gas shortages and allow Russian gas to be sold onward to Iran's neighbours.

The Kremlin confirmed the meeting through presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said Putin and Rezaei discussed bilateral relations and regional developments. Putin was reported to have said he would do everything possible to help bring the conflict to an end.

The talks also covered the Rasht-Astara railway, the missing link in the International North-South Transport Corridor, with documents signed on access to land for construction. Iran has said it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz or enter negotiations until its seven conditions are met in full, a position Rezaei repeated in Moscow.