Putin meets top Iranian security chief

The unannounced visit comes amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington

President Vladimir Putin welcomed Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, to the Kremlin on Friday in an unannounced high-level meeting.

Larijani, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was appointed to his post last August. He previously visited Moscow in the summer following US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.