Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Tehran with their Iranian hosts, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the country’s president, Ebrahim Raisi. Syria is the supposed main topic of the meeting, which is taking place as part of a five-year diplomatic effort to resolve the war between Bashar Assad’s regime and rebel groups. But there has been little push or urgency about Syria in recent months. And with the US declaring its goals of isolating Iran over its nuclear program and Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, other security issues will almost certainly come to the fore. Iran, Russia and Turkey – a NATO member whose relations with the alliance have been strained of late – will seek to highlight the futility of US efforts to contain or challenge them. “Europe and the US put pressure on everyone, demanding that all relations with Moscow be severed,” commentator Dmitry Yevstafiev was quoted as saying by Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Now, after four months of hostilities, we can safely speak of the failure of the boycott.” Mr. Biden visited Israel and Saudi Arabia last week to strengthen ties with countries Washington considers friends and present a united front against Iran and Russia. The timing of the Tehran summit appears to have been chosen to immediately follow Mr Biden’s much-criticized trip to the Middle East. Experts say the interests of Russia and Iran have increasingly aligned in recent years. “What we’ve seen since the war in Ukraine started is that Russia has paid much more attention to its relationship with Iran and upgraded its importance,” said Nicole Graweski, a researcher specializing in Russia-Iran relations at Harvard University’s Belfer Center. Science and International Affairs. Among the most groundbreaking aspects of the visit are reports highlighted by US and Iranian officials that Tehran is selling fighter drones to Russia. White House official Jake Sullivan claimed that Russian military officials had visited an Iranian military base twice this month to observe the drones in action. “To our knowledge, this is the first time a Russian delegation has visited this airport for such an exhibition,” Mr Sullivan told reporters. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reportedly denied that Tehran was preparing to provide arms to Russia, but Iranian diplomats are often kept in the dark about such matters by senior Revolutionary Guard officials who oversee military and security affairs. Selling weapons to a nuclear power would mark a milestone for Iran. Tehran has been an arms customer from China and Russia for decades, but recently alarmed Western and Middle Eastern diplomats by investing in an indigenous drone production program. Iran opened a drone factory in Tajikistan in May as part of an effort to develop its arms industry after international sanctions are lifted in 2020. Iran has also been accused of transferring such weapons to non-state forces such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and Yemen’s Houthi militia, which are fighting Saudi Arabia in an armed conflict that has lasted more than seven years. “The drones they supply to the Russians will be the same ones they sell to the Houthis,” Ms Graweski said. “The fact that the Russians rely on Iranian technology is something important. It shows that it’s not just a one-way relationship, especially when it comes to military technology.” Iranian and Russian officials are also reportedly discussing efforts to conduct trade in local currencies in an attempt to circumvent US sanctions. “We’ll probably move away from [dollarised trading] as we develop our cooperation in the banking and financial sector,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview broadcast on Russian and Iranian state television ahead of Mr Putin’s departure. President Putin’s visit to Tehran will be only his second trip abroad since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, which started a war that continues to rage. It will be the Russian leader’s first visit to Iran since 2017. While the trip has apparently been planned for some time, the symbolism of the visit of the leaders of two Eurasian powers to Iran comes within days of Mr. Biden’s declaration that he will work with Middle Eastern partners such as Israel and Saudi Arabia to limit Tehran’s ambitions are undeniable. . An Iranian student from the Islamic Basiji volunteer militia burns an American flag in Iran’s capital Tehran during a protest against the US president’s visits to Israel and Saudi Arabia (AFP via Getty) Mr. Erdogan’s presence highlights a Turkish foreign policy that has demonstrated maximum diplomatic flexibility. While maintaining strong diplomatic, business and military ties with the West, particularly Europe, Turkey has also mended its relations with the Arab empires and with Israel, maintained strong trade and political ties with Iran, and managed to maintain relations not only with Russia but also with Ukraine, to which it sells combat drones. Moscow, Ankara and Kyiv are currently negotiating terms with the United Nations to establish a grain corridor and coordination office in Turkey to get wheat and other staples from Eastern Europe across the Black Sea and into the rest of the world. people. global food crisis. A Kremlin adviser was quoted as saying Mr Putin would discuss the grain export office with Mr Erdogan during the meeting in Tehran. Turkey is also seeking the green light from Moscow to move against Kurdish militants and political groups in northern Syria, where Russia, the Damascus regime, US forces and various armed groups are vying for dominance.
