Fox News Flash top headlines for January 16
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Two of America’s adversaries are solidifying their ties just days before President-elect Trump makes his historic return to the Oval Office. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are meeting in Moscow to sign a partnership treaty.
Pezeshkian, who won the presidency in Iran’s July runoff election, is set to engage in talks with Putin and participate in the partnership pact-signing during his first trip to Moscow as president.
"Iran is an important partner for us with which we are developing multifaceted co-operation," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told press, according to a Reuters report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian shake hands as they meet in Moscow, Russia Jan. 17, 2025. (REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina)
Russia and Iran’s leaders are expected to discuss the development of transit corridors for trade and energy negotiations, Bloomberg reported. While Iran is looking to become a hub for Russian gas, there aren’t signs that the two have made substantial progress on the project, Bloomberg added.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan recently claimed that the Biden administration is leaving Russia, China and Iran "weaker" ahead of Trump’s return to Washington, even as the Kremlin makes its own moves on the world stage.
Amid sanctions from the US and its allies, Russia has deepened its ties with other anti-West nations, such as Iran and North Korea. In fact, Russia and Iran’s relationship has grown since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to a yearslong war.
Vladimir Putin, left, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right (Reuters/AP)
President-elect Trump’s incoming special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg has already urged the US to return to the policy of "maximum pressure" on Iran.
"For the United States, a policy of maximum pressure must be reinstated, and it must be reinstated with the help of the rest of the globe, and that includes standing with the Iranian people and their aspirations for democracy," Kellogg said at an event sponsored by an Iranian opposition group, The National Council of Resistance of Iran, in Paris.
Kellogg is also urging the US to stand with the Iranian people against the regime in Teheran.
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Despite the US and its allies’ fears about the treaty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the partnership pact should not be a cause of concern.
"This agreement, like our treaty with North Korea, is not directed against anyone," Lavrov said, according to Sky News.
In June, Putin met with North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, where the two signed an aid pact that brought the two nations closer than ever since the fall of the Soviet Union. Putin also expressed his gratitude for Kim’s "unwavering support" of the ongoing war with Ukraine.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un pose for a photo during a signing ceremony following bilateral talks in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 19, 2024. (Sputnik/Kristina Kormilitsyna/Kremlin via REUTERS)
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"We’ve seen […] Russia try, in desperation, to develop and to strengthen relations with countries that can provide it with what it needs to continue the war of aggression that it started against Ukraine," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time.
He added that the US will "do everything we can to cut off the support that countries, like Iran and North Korea, are providing."