Shevardnadze meets Iran’s president-elect

The UN-supervised ceasefire began, ending the war’s main fighting and creating a more favourable setting for renewed Iranian–Soviet cooperation.

Khomeini’s letter to Gorbachev challenged Marxist materialism and urged study of Islamic thought, while expressing interest in good-neighbourly relations. The exchange showed that diplomatic contact...

The USSR completed its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, removing a major source of tension with Iran without ending Afghanistan’s internal war.

Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze met Khomeini in Tehran and conveyed Gorbachev’s reply, combining discussion of their differing worldviews with renewed bilateral contact.

Iran and the USSR signed a programme of economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation extending to 2000, including a framework for military-technical ties.

The USSR formally dissolved. Iran’s relationship with Moscow entered a Russian phase, while newly independent Caucasian and Central Asian states altered its regional setting.

Iran and Russia signed a protocol on cooperation in nuclear power-plant construction, establishing a framework for post-Soviet nuclear collaboration.

Tajik government and opposition delegations concluded a UN-sponsored ceasefire in Tehran. Its provisions addressed the neutrality of Russian troops and CIS peacekeepers.

Russian and Iranian nuclear organizations signed a contract to complete Bushehr’s first reactor unit. The project became a major channel of civilian nuclear cooperation; signing the contract did not...

The United States and Russia signed an aide-memoire restricting future Russian arms sales to Iran, showing Tehran the influence of US–Russian bargaining on its defence partnerships.