Tehran has expressed its readiness to play a role in resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and contribute to efforts to end the war, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said at a meeting with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in Tehran, Tasnim reports.

 "Iran welcomes and supports any initiatives for a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine through dialogue and is ready to play a role in ending the war," he said. Shamkhani also called regional and international cooperation and dialogue the only solutions to existing crises and problems in the region and the world. Warning of the threats that terrorism and extremism pose to regional and international security, Shamkhani stressed the need to maintain and strengthen collective cooperation to combat these threats.  "Promoting bilateral and regional cooperation, especially with neighboring states in the economic sphere, is one of the country's strategic priorities."

Shamkhani also stressed the importance of cooperation between Tehran and Moscow in energy, transportation, agriculture, trade, banking and the environment, calling for the removal of obstacles to cooperation in these areas.

He also stressed the need to form joint and synergetic institutions to counter sanctions and boost the international capacity of organizations against sanctions and the countries that impose them.

For his part, Patrushev welcomed the growing cooperation between Russia and Iran in various fields, saying that the four meetings between the presidents of the two countries in one year testify to the determination of Moscow and Tehran to take their relations to a strategic level.

Pointing to previous agreements between the national security councils of Russia and Iran and the development of a road map for strategic cooperation, especially with regard to economic and technological sanctions, the Russian official said he had visited Tehran to accelerate the implementation of joint projects and provide dynamic mechanisms to launch new activities in economic, trade, energy and technological fields.

He also noted that the rapid completion of the North-South corridor would also improve the quality of trade and economic cooperation at bilateral and international levels.

Pointing to a joint initiative to form a Friendship Group in defense of the UN Charter with the participation of countries subject to illegal sanctions by the West, Patrushev said that Western states, particularly the United States, have violated UN provisions and resorted to hybrid warfare to impose their political will on independent states.

Patrushev also briefed Shamkhani on the situation in Ukraine.