(Reuters) - Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.

The loose arrangement of hostile powers could pose a series of conundrums for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state.

U.S. Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio on Wednesday accused "rough states" and "dictators" in North Korea, Russia and Iran of sowing "chaos" and "instability," and China of having "lied, cheated and stolen" its way into a global superpower status at the expense of the United