Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told a senior ally of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin on Monday that Tehran was determined to expand relations with its "strategic partner Russia," Iranian state media reported.

Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia's security council, met Iran's president and top security officials as the Islamic Republic weighs its response to the killing of a Hamas leader.

"Russia is among the countries that have stood by the Iranian nation during difficult times," Pezeshkian told Shoigu in a meeting, Iranian state media reported.