Vladimir Putin won staunch support from Iran on 19 July for his country’s military campaign in Ukraine with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Khamenei states that if Russia hadn’t sent the military to Ukraine, it would face a strike from NATO later, an idea that echoed Putin’s rhetoric and reflected increasingly close ties between Tehran and Moscow as they both face crippling Western sanctions.
NATO supported their military in Eastern Europe and helped Ukraine with weapons to help counter the Russian attack.
On his second trip abroad, Russia launched military action in February, and Putin consulted with two presidents. The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, on the war in Syria, and he used the trip to talk about a U.N.-backed proposal to resume exports of Ukrainian grain to facility the global food crisis.
Turkey, a NATO member, has found itself in opposition to Russia in the bloody war in Libya and Syria. It has even sold lethal drones that the Ukrainian military has used to attack Russian troops. But Ankara hasn’t put sanctions on the Kremlin, making it a sorely required partner for Moscow. Grappling with runaway inflation and a rapidly decreasing currency, even Turkey also depends on the Russian market.
Erdogan praised described Russia’s very affirmatory approach in last week’s talks about grain in Istanbul. He said he hoped a deal would be made, and the result that would emerge would have an affirmative impact worldwide.
Russian, U.N., Turkish, and Ukrainian officials reached a temporary agreement on some aspects of an agreement to ensure the exporting of 22 million tons of desperately needed grain and other farming products trapped in Ukraine’s Black Sea docks by the fighting. Reaching the agreement would mark a significant move toward alleviating a food crisis that has increased the prices of wheat and barley.
The trip to Tehran symbolically shows off Russia’s international clout even as it grows increasingly isolated and plunges deeper. It comes a few days after U.S. President Joe Biden’s visited Israel and Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s main nemesis.
From Jeddah and Jerusalem, Biden urged Israel and Arabian countries to push back on Chinese and Iranian influence that has increased its expansion with the perception of America’s retreat from the area.
It was a hard sell. Israel maintains a good connection with Putin, a necessity given the Russian presence in Syria, Israel’s northeastern neighbour and frequent target of its airstrikes. U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia are disinclined to pump more oil beyond a plan approved by their energy alliance with Moscow.
But all the countries, despite their long-standing rivalries, could agree on drawing nearer to countering Iran, which has quickly advanced its nuclear program since Donald Trump marooned Tehran’s atomic relation with world powers and reintroduced crushing sanctions. Talks to restore the agreement have hit a dead end.
Cornered by the West and its regional nemesis, the Iranian government is ramping up uranium purity, cracking down on protesters and grabbing headlines with positivity, extremist stances intended to keep the rial from crashing. Without sanctions relief in sight, Iran’s tactical relation with Russia has become one of survival, even as Moscow appears to be decreasing the black oil trade with Tehran in
Iran is (the) centre of dynamic diplomacy, Iranian Foreign Minister Amirabdollahian Tweeted, adding the meetings will develop economic cooperation, focus on the security of the region and ensure food security.
Fadahossein Maleki, a member of the Iranian parliament’s influential committee on national security and foreign policy, described Russia as Iran’s most strategic partner on 18 July. His comments belied decades of animosity stemming from Russia’s occupation of Iran during World War II and its refusal to leave afterwards.
In a sign of seemingly close military cooperation, Russian officials recently visited an airport in central Iran twice to review Tehran’s weapons-capable drones for possible use in Ukraine, the White House has alleged.
“Our relations are developing at a good pace”, Putin said at the start of the meeting with Raisi, adding that ” the two countries have worked to strengthen their cooperation on international security and contribute significantly to the Syrian settlement.”
In a closing statement, he offered support to Tehran over the dead end of the nuclear deal, calling for its full revival and complete lifting of sanctions against Iran to allow free development of cooperation in any area without any discrimination.
