TEHRAN - The Iranian and Russian security chiefs held talks on security and defense cooperation in Moscow on Wednesday afternoon.

Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), and Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia's Security Council, also discussed the need for continuous joint fight against terrorism, particularly in Syria.

Patrushev also said a long-term cooperation agreement between Iran and Russia is being finalized, predicting it will enhance relations and outline the path for strategic cooperation.

“Today, Moscow-Tehran ties are strengthening and upgrading to a new qualitative level in all fields,” the Russian security chief remarked he added.

The two senior officials also discussed pressing regional and international issues, including Israel’s ongoing crimes in the Gaza Strip.

Ahmadian said Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, especially those in besieged Gaza, must come to an end.

Israel waged a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement launched a surprise attack, codenamed al-Aqsa Storm Operation, in southern Israel in retaliation for the occupation regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinians.

So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 25,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Israel’s war on Gaza has been described as war crime, crime against humanity and genocide.