Istanbul Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to reach agreement on two important points at a top-level meeting in Tehran. This affects the blocked wheat exports from Ukraine and the smoldering civil war in Syria.
The Iranian leadership received the participants of the meeting on Tuesday, the government and state television reported. The official topic of the summit meeting is talks about improving the situation in civil war-torn Syria. But regional cooperation and the war in Ukraine were also discussed.
Clearly in a good mood, Russia’s President Putin arrived in Tehran. It is his second official trip abroad since the attack on Ukraine began. While Putin recently received top politicians at long tables in Moscow, there was little distance seen in Iran at meetings with the supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or President Raisi. Erdogan and Putin were received with military honors.
The meeting came shortly after a trip to the region by US President Joe Biden. Biden returned from Saudi Arabia – Iran’s regional rival – just over the weekend.
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At a subsequent meeting with Turkish President Erdogan, Putin expressed his gratitude for Ankara’s mediation on the issue of grain deliveries. Not all questions have been answered yet, but there is progress, said the Kremlin boss in his opening statement. Ukraine and Western countries accuse Russia of blocking Ukrainian seaports and thus grain deliveries. Moscow denies the allegation.
Khamenei criticizes NATO’s eastward expansion
Iran’s President Raisi called for a diplomatic solution for the civil war in Syria. The most important thing is to ensure territorial integrity and allow the Syrian people to decide their own political fate, Raisi said. A jointly declared goal is also to take action against terrorism.
The three states had already negotiated over the future of Syria. Russia and Iran support the ruler Bashar al-Assad, Turkey is allied with the opposition. The three protecting powers have been organizing talks on the Syrian conflict in the so-called Astana format since 2017.
Ankara has been announcing a new offensive in northern Syria for weeks and, as a result of past military interventions, has occupied areas in the north of the neighboring country. Russia and Iran recently warned Turkey against military action.
Iran’s supreme leader renewed his warnings in talks with Erdogan. Turkey argues with its security and “terrorist” threat.
Khamenei again accused the West of NATO’s eastward expansion. Had Russia not taken the initiative in the war of aggression against Ukraine, another conflict would have erupted, Khamenei said in a conversation with Putin, state broadcaster Irib reported. He was alluding to an argument put forward by Russia, according to which Moscow saw itself threatened by the inclusion of Eastern European states in the western defense alliance and, above all, by Ukraine’s potential NATO membership.
The picture distributed by the Russian state news agency Sputnik shows Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan at their meeting in Iran.
(Photo: dpa)
Officially, Iran is neutral with regard to Putin’s war against Ukraine, which began at the end of February. But the sympathies of the Iranian leadership for Russia are well known.
A statement by a US government official last week also caused a stir. There are indications that Moscow wants to acquire Iranian combat drones for the war against Ukraine. Iran immediately denied this and firmly assured Ukraine that the American claims were “baseless”. The topic was no longer publicly discussed on Tuesday.
Syrian opposition politicians accused the three states of only being interested in their own interests in the civil war country. Their main goal is to “weaken the Syrian right and serve the interests of the Syrian regime more,” said opposition leader Jijha al-Aridi on Tuesday. The new round of Syria constitutional talks in Geneva, which was planned for July, was only recently canceled.
Russia and Iran deepen economic cooperation because of US sanctions
Sanctions hit Iran and Russia hard. This is one of the reasons why both countries are striving for closer cooperation, especially in the oil and gas industry and in the financial sector. Ankara also wants to expand economic cooperation with Tehran. Both countries emphasized that they want to increase the annual trade volume to 30 billion dollars – a goal that both countries have been formulating for years, but so far without any significant results. The trading volume is currently at $7.5 billion.
Erdogan said he particularly hopes to expand cooperation in the defense industry. The two neighboring countries also signed a number of declarations of intent. Border security between the two countries was also addressed. One of the main escape routes for people from Afghanistan on their way to Turkey and Europe runs through Iran.
The Russian gas company Gazprom and Iran’s state oil company announced strategic cooperation. Accordingly, the two companies want to explore possibilities of cooperation, for example in the development of oil and gas fields in Iran or in the liquefaction of gas, in the construction of pipelines and in the scientific and technical field. Iran has one of the largest gas fields in the world. However, due to the US sanctions, the country does not have access to modern technology.
To this day, however, Iranian private companies are often reluctant to work with Russians. In political circles, too, one hears again and again that Russia is not a reliable partner and especially not Putin, who could drop Iran at any time for his own interests. However, Russia has supported Iran with military equipment that the country is finding difficult to obtain due to US sanctions.
Putin seeks support for aggressive war – Iran emphasizes neutrality
Khamenei, who according to the constitution has the final say in all strategic matters in Iran, pledged his support to Russia. Relations are good for Russia and Iran as both states are hit by US sanctions.
Khamenei also called for the dollar to be weakened as an international currency. The introduction of Russian rubles for foreign exchange brokers was announced in Iran on Tuesday morning. According to experts, however, the Iranian central bank must first obtain enough foreign exchange to put the currency into circulation. The introduction is therefore more worthwhile for large government projects.
With agency material
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