/ world today news/ Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi visited Russia to meet Vladimir Putin, who had just returned from the Middle East.
It was officially reported that during the five-hour conversation, the Russian and Iranian leaders discussed: bilateral cooperation (“Relations are developing very well,” Putin said), the international situation, including the Palestinian-Israeli war, and major continental projects, including the North-South Corridor .
Many experts call two events – Putin’s visit to the UAE and Saudi Arabia (plus negotiations with the crown prince of Oman) and the visit of the Iranian president – parts of a political-diplomatic marathon, according to Elena Suponina, an expert from the Russian Council on International Relations.
Two questions not only about Moscow and Tehran
All these negotiations are united above all by the choice of topics. Both in the Emirates, in Riyadh and in Moscow, Vladimir Putin discussed issues that concern all the countries of the Middle East.
For example, those that require multilateral cooperation. One of these topics was the situation in the Gaza Strip. The fate of the Palestinians worries not only the entire Arab, but also the entire Muslim world (including Iran), and Moscow can act as a mediator.
Most in achieving a truce and least in preventing the widening and deepening of the conflict, turning it into a general Middle East war involving the US, Israel and Iran.
Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia need this (which will suffer multi-billion losses, in particular, from blocking hydrocarbon export channels).
“All these countries are interested in stability reigning in the Persian Gulf region, or at least ensuring that there is no major conflict there,” notes Suponina.
There is a danger of such a scenario, and Russia is apparently mediating to prevent a major war. After all, Moscow is not interested in this war either – unlike some in America and Israel, Suponina emphasizes.
The second such topic was the price of oil. Both Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia benefit from keeping this indicator high (as their budgets depend on it), which means it is important that all players honor their terms within the OPEC+ deal. So that Iran’s planned increase in production does not affect the price in any way.
High level fighters
There were also topics that seemed to relate specifically to Russian-Iranian cooperation, but at the same time affected the individual interests of Iran’s neighbors. For example, the arms trade.
“Questions were raised about military-technical cooperation, in particular Iran’s purchase of Russian fighter jets,” explains Suponina. Russian weapons, as we know, have proven their effectiveness in SVO (including against Western weapons systems), which is why the Iranians, who have been balancing on the brink of war with the West for many years, are interested in them.
In late November, the Ministry of Defense of the Islamic Republic confirmed that plans to supply Su-35 fighter jets, as well as Mi-28 attack helicopters and Yak-130 training aircraft to the Iranian army were already drawn up. Experts note that Iran still remains under the strict American sanctions, which seriously affect the country’s economy. But it is possible that cooperation between Moscow and Tehran in the military sphere will develop on the principle of barter. And Iran has a lot to offer other countries – for example, the latest modifications of Shahed drones.
Rails to the Indian Ocean
Another bilateral topic, as noted above, was transport communications. “We discussed for a long time and came to the practical implementation of the construction of the North-South railway line,” noted Putin.
Taking into account the difficulties with logistics in the western direction and attempts to exclude Russia from the main transport corridors, it is important for us to build alternative routes that provide access to the Indian Ocean (not only to India, but also to the Persian Gulf). One of the main projects for us here is “North-South”, explained Stanislav Prichin, senior research associate in the Central Asian sector of IMEMO of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
According to the expert, Moscow has always been involved in the development of this route, and the main difficulties have arisen from the Iranian side – which, for example, has not been able to complete the construction of a section of the railway line for 20 years.
“Now Russia is involved in the process, Russian Railways is involved in construction, and the project is expected to be completed,” Pritchin recalled. For Iran, the project has not only external, but also internal economic significance – for the first time, the north and south of this country will be connected by a railway line, continued Pritchin.
Two reasons for the negotiations to remain closed
The negotiations were distinguished by one feature – although the topics were obvious, the parties did not announce practical agreements. The meeting was held behind closed doors, without announcing the results – that is, on the same principle as the visits to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
According to experts, this was done for several reasons.
First, it is the desire to protect transactions (agreements for the supply of weapons or the creation of transport projects) from Western sanctions, as well as from attempts to use these transactions in domestic American politics.
The US election campaign begins. President Joe Biden is using every opportunity to convince Congress to give Ukraine billions, including talking about the growing threat from Russia that the parties must unite against.
And sensitive deals with Iran could be a great opportunity for that unity. And also (if we talk, for example, about the Gaza agreements) a target for various detractors interested in continuing or even deepening the conflict.
Second, the transactions are not disclosed due to the specifics of Russian policy in the Middle East.
Russia is in a unique position – it maintains working relationships with all regional players, allowing it to act as an intermediary between them.
On the other hand, this also imposes a number of obligations – in particular maintaining a balance in relations. When, for example, Moscow’s cooperation with Tehran should not cross certain red lines that are unacceptable to Israel or Saudi Arabia. Well, or it should not give the impression of such a transition.
In fact, one of these assessments was made at the meeting between Putin and Raisi, albeit in jest.
Putin made it clear that after his visit to Saudi Arabia, he could easily fly to Iran – and he didn’t fly just because Raisi himself came to Russia. “Yesterday, you know, I was in the neighboring region, I flew directly over the territory of your country to see my colleagues and I wanted to land and meet directly in Tehran, but I was told: the president has already prepared and is flying to Moscow” , noted the Russian leader. And his Iranian counterpart made it clear that it would have been better if he had flown in.
“I have to tell you, after your visit, dear Mr. Putin, God help you, but we were ready for your plane to land at Tehran airport and we were ready to receive you,” President Raisi noted.
A partner you can trust
However, such an exchange of words does not mean that there are problems in the area of trust or reliability between Moscow and Tehran. On the contrary, they were recently resolved.
Yes, not everything was smooth sailing between the parties. In conversations with the author, Iranian diplomats and experts expressed doubt that Russia’s turn to the East is sincere and permanent.
They said that once the West made peace with Russia again, it would turn to Europe and forget its new partners.
But, first, all the recent actions of the United States and Europe (including sanctions) have made such a scenario extremely unlikely.
Second, Iranians need to look in the mirror. “When they blame the Russians for this, they themselves can remember how they went to negotiations with the West – and every time they were deceived,” points out Elena Suponina.
They have been deceived even now that Iran has caved in to the US and released American prisoners from its prisons. In return, Tehran was to receive its unfrozen funds, which were due to Iran for energy exports but were blocked due to US sanctions in foreign banks.
After increasing tensions in the Middle East, the Americans asked a number of countries (in particular South Korea) to freeze these funds again, Suponina recalled. Therefore, Tehran also drew its conclusions.
The Iranians have no intention of wasting partners like Moscow. “Russia can be trusted, it has certain principles that it demonstrated in Syria, helping to preserve the power of a valuable Iranian ally, President Bashar al-Assad,” notes Suponina.
These principles concern respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. For Moscow, all this is not an empty phrase, but the most important topic. Russia has demonstrated its willingness to adhere to these principles, which is very important for a multinational and multi-religious Iran, the expert continues.
Moscow also has no intention, because Iran is not only an important economic partner (according to Putin, bilateral trade between the countries has increased by 20%, to 5 billion dollars), but also a political one.
Moscow and Tehran are united by their rejection of a unipolar world. “What humanity is suffering from today is the acceptance of unilateral measures and a global unjust system. We can see a clear manifestation of this today in the events taking place in Gaza,” President Raisi said.
Yes, this factor unites Moscow with many other countries – but Iran is one of the few that has not only the rejection, but also the political will to change this “unjust system”.
This is what the countries are doing now, both through bilateral cooperation and multilateral Middle East projects. After all, as Suponina noted, not only countries that have long been in conflict with Washington (for example, Iran), but also traditional American allies UAE and Saudi Arabia are tired of US hegemony.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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