Ebrahim Raisi, President of Iran, greets Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, during a ceremony at Saadabad Palace.
(Photo: dpa)
Tehran Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan meet Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday. At the summit in the Iranian capital, Tehran, talks are officially planned to improve the situation in civil war-torn Syria. According to the Kremlin, however, it is about a whole range of international policy issues, including the war in Ukraine.
The meeting comes shortly after a multi-day trip by US President Joe Biden to the region. Biden returned from Saudi Arabia — Iran’s major regional rival — just over the weekend.
Raisi has already welcomed Erdogan to the Saadabad palace complex. In an opinion piece, Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian described the meeting as an approach to a “neighborhood and regional-oriented policy”. “The summit will not be limited to the Syria issue as the three countries have common interests in the areas of economy, energy and food security, which will be part of the deliberations at the summit,” Amirabdollahian wrote in the Iranaily newspaper.
The three states have negotiated Syria’s future in the past. Russia and Iran support the Syrian government, while Turkey is allied with the opposition. According to dpa information, Syria’s foreign minister is also expected to meet his Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Wednesday.
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After the start of the Ukraine war, experts consider a shift in power among the actors in Syria to be possible. According to this, Iran and Turkey could try to fill a power vacuum left by Moscow. Ankara has been announcing a new offensive against the Kurdish forces in northern Syria for weeks. Russia and Iran recently warned Turkey against military action.
Turkey mediates in the dispute over grain exports
It is Putin’s second officially known trip abroad since Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February. NATO member Turkey has close ties to both Moscow and Kyiv and most recently acted as a mediator between the two countries in the dispute over grain exports blocked in Ukraine.
>>Read here: Easing in the grain dispute: Why the wheat price will still rise
A statement by a high-ranking US government official last week caused a stir. There are indications that Moscow wants to acquire Iranian combat drones for the war against Ukraine. Apparently, a Russian delegation has already visited an Iranian airport for a demonstration of attackable drones.
The US fears that Russia could use these drones in the Ukraine war.
(Photo: dpa)
Iran immediately denied this and firmly assured Ukraine that the American claims were “baseless”. The Kremlin also said recently that Putin and Raisi would not talk about possible drone deliveries on Tuesday.
Officially, Iran is neutral with regard to Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began at the end of February. But the sympathies of the Iranian leadership for Russia are well known. Iran’s relations with the largest country in the world in terms of area have become ever closer in recent years – especially since 2018, when the USA, under its then President Donald Trump, withdrew from the Vienna nuclear agreement. Due to US sanctions, Iran was also able to obtain military equipment almost exclusively from Russia.
More: Response to NATO expansion – How dangerous is Russia’s CSTO military pact?