TEHRAN (IRNA) — Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf arrived in Moscow on Sunday to hold talks with Russian officials. He went to the Russian capital at the invitation of Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin.

The head and the rapporteur of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, as well as heads of energy and agriculture commissions of the parliament are accompanying Qalibaf during his trip to Moscow.

On the three-day trip, Qalibaf is to hand the message of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to the Russian government, meet with his Russian counterparts in Duma and Federation Council, and meet with economic, commercial, political, and security officials of Russia.

Pointing out that Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has always emphasized strategic relations with Russia, earlier Qalibaf said that “these continuous emphases made my first foreign trip to Russia as speaker of parliament with an official invitation, so one of the significance of this trip is that I carry an important message to the Russian government on strategic issues.”

He added that Tehran-Moscow cooperation on economic, political, defence, security, technology, scientific and academic issues are very good, and the bilateral relations between the two countries’ parliaments, especially the Joint High Commission, which is headed by the two heads of parliament, have deepened and have been very influential.

With a Joe Biden who sought to be pro-Iran during his electoral campaign, it seems that this trip and these kinds of statements are an attempt by Tehran to put pressure on the United States to speed up the lifting of economic sanctions.

Qalibaf is also slated to address foreign policy and international think tanks of Russia.