How Iran-Soviet military alliance grew in final days of USSR

Details of co-operation between the Soviet Union and Iran on military and nuclear issues are revealed by newly uncovered diplomatic documents.

The alliance between the two countries grew especially strong in what were to become the Soviet Union’s final years before its break up in 1991, as shown by notes written from a Politburo meeting in March 1989 by Anatoly Chernyaev, the foreign policy adviser to the then Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev.

Under the heading, “Military supplies to Iran”, he records Gorbachev as saying: “We need to have a word with the Czechs and Hungarians, and tell them, ‘Tehran has been trying to contact the USSR about this,’ and also ask them, ‘How about if we arrange this through you?’

“We need it because it will support our military industry, provide foreign currency, and establish military connections which can reinforce our general relationship.”