Tag: iran

It was only a few weeks ago that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met to ink the historic Russo-Iranian Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.  The pact itself was a milestone, so much so that commentators around the world are still widely discussing its implications.  Perhaps one of the most striking elements of the treaty is the major focus on Eurasia.  Although Western analysts tend to focus on Russo-Iranian cooperation in the Middle East, the treaty indicates that Eurasia is of even more immediate geopolitical significance to both Moscow and Tehran.  To historians and long-time observers of Iran and Russia, this is hardly a surprise.  The Eurasian region – that is, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Caspian Sea – forms an integral part of the common Russo-Iranian neighborhood.

For the security of both countries, the Caucasus region in particular is especially critical. Defined by its protective mountainous geography and central location between the Black and Caspian seas, the area has long played a major role in the security architecture of both Russia and Iran.  This major geostrategic significance has certainly not been lost on the current Russian leadership, and President Putin in particular.  From the defeat of Islamist terrorists in Chechnya to the success of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the Caucasus has always held an especially important place in Moscow’s geopolitical outlook. Sochi in particular has served as a standard for Russian revival following the freefall of the Yeltsin years.  The region is no less significant to Iran and has always served as a critical security and commercial link for successive Iranian leaders, dating back to the age of Cyrus the Great and his Achaemenid Empire. In this regard, President Pezeshkian’s native Iranian Azerbaijan played a particularly vital role in facilitating Iran’s historic connections with the Caucasus, linking the area to the great trade routes of the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, and the Silk Road.

Thus, it is hardly a surprise that the Caucasus continues to be a major strategic priority for both Moscow and Tehran.  For the Kremlin, its importance is second only to Ukraine and has been amplified at a time when Western political leaders have called for a “strategic defeat” of Russia.  Especially important for both Tehran and Moscow are the three independent former Soviet republics of the South Caucasus, or Transcaucasia – Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. These countries have been of particular interest to war hawks, neoconservative intellectuals, and big energy interests in Washington and London for decades. All of these groups hold an especially strong desire to realize a Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. The aim is to use the Caucasus as a bridgehead to access the energy riches of post-Soviet Central Asia, as a means of “containing” Russia, Iran, and ultimately, China.  Israel – and especially the hard-right of the Israeli political elite – has likewise long held interests in the region, with an eye toward using post-Soviet Azerbaijan as an instrument against Iran’s territorial integrity.  Baku regularly receives generous military aid from Tel Aviv in exchange for sending oil to Israel, all while keeping conspicuously mum on the atrocities against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.  Azerbaijan’s closest ally, Turkey, is another major player interested in weakening Russian and Iranian influence in Caucasia. In fact, NATO has delegated to Ankara the task of projecting Western influence into the region, given that Turkey is the one alliance member in closest proximity to the Caucasus.  Ankara pursues this task alongside its own interests, which nevertheless correspond with those of NATO.

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By abstaining from diplomacy and relying so heavily on isolating countries and the broad stroke of sanctions, the U.S. runs the risk of creating a community of isolated and sanctioned countries. A community of sanctioned countries negates the effect of sanctions. And a community of isolated countries creates the very multipolar world the U.S. is trying to push back.

In the past couple of years, Iran has fought back against isolation and sanctions by joining the Russian and Chinese led Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, two significant international organizations intended to balance American hegemony in a multipolar world.

On January 17, though, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between their two countries, bringing Iran and Russia into a closer partnership than ever before.

Article 2 of the treaty commits the two countries to rejecting unipolarity and pursuing multilateralism, while Article 14 specifically commits them to “deepen[ing] cooperation within the framework of regional organizations,” including the promise to “interact and coordinate positions in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.” In a press conference following the talks, Pezeshkian said that BRICS and the SCO are transforming the region and “represent new opportunities and potential for both countries to collaborate in the future.”

But the new strategic partnership is much more than a vague public announcement of Iran and Russia’s friendship. The detailed forty-seven article document is the product of months of intense diplomacy. The document brings the comprehensive partnership a historic new intensity. In his opening remarks at the press conference, Putin called the document “truly ground-breaking.” Dmitri Trenin, research professor at the Higher School of Economics, told me that Putin’s use of words like “breakthrough,” refer, above all, “to the very fact that the Moscow-Tehran relationship now has a treaty as a base.”

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President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran on Friday signed a 20-year pact between their countries at the Kremlin, just three days before Trump’s inauguration.

Dubbed the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty, the Kremlin is hailing it as bringing relations with the Islamic Republic to a new level, enshrining the two countries’ status as strategic partners. Putin hailed the “real breakthrough, creating conditions for the stable and sustainable development of Russia, Iran and the entire region.”

Russian media has described it covers all spheres, including defense, counter-terrorism, energy, finance, transport, industry, agriculture, culture, science and engineering.

The allies are also working on linking their national payment systems: “According to the Russian leader, in 2024, the share of transactions in Russian rubles and Iranian rials exceeded 95% of all bilateral trade operations,” TASS noted.

Putin further said in a press conference with Pezeshkian, “Our countries firmly uphold the principles of the supremacy of international law, the sovereignty of states, non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.” As for Pezeshkian, he said the following:

“We witness a new chapter of strategic relations,” the Iranian president said, adding that the countries were set to expand trade ties and also boost the “level of security cooperation.”

The pact is heavily focused on defense and security cooperation. “It will confirm the parties’ desire for closer cooperation in the field of defense and interaction in the interests of peace and security at the regional and global levels,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had earlier stated.

Already, the two sides cooperate closely on drones. Russia has since the Ukraine war’s start been using Iran-produced ‘Shahed’ kamikaze drones against Ukrainian cities, and Iran has reportedly set up a major UAV production facility on Russian soil at Moscow’s invitation. 

Moscow and Tehran early last month lost a key Middle East ally upon the fall of Bashar al Assad, after Islamic insurgents rampaged across the country and the demoralized and underpaid Syrian Army quickly collapsed. Turkey was widely seen as supporting the insurgents with intelligence and equipment, and likely other NATO states played a background role as well.

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