Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be reaching out to Middle East leaders in a bid to reach consensus on a strategy to destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS).
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The Kremlin announced that the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Supreme Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s views on the situation in Syria were the same during their meeting which continued for more than an hour and a half in Tehran.
Putin’s trip was planned before the UN Security Council on Friday authorised countries to “take all necessary measures” to fight IS in a France-sponsored resolution one week after the Paris attacks.
Following their talks, Putin and Rouhani witnessed the signing of a number of agreements between their countries in a range of industries, including health, travel, finance, railways, thermal power, desalination and groundwater. He will meet supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani on the one-day visit.
“The Syrian crisis must and will be decided by political means”, Putin said during Monday’s meeting with his Turkmen counterpart, President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, on the sidelines of the gas summit. “The Iranians emphasize the pivotal role Russian Federation played in the lifting of sanctions, so if we’re active we’ll open a new market for ourselves”. In return, Tehran agreed to long-term curbs on its nuclear programme in a landmark July deal with the so-called P5+1 powers.
“Today, arrogant [that is, U.S.] policies are plaguing the humanity like a grave scourge and the only way for the progress and victory of independent countries is steadfastness and reliance on masses in the wars of wills”, the Iranian said. “(However) Mr. Putin has held discussions in recent weeks with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, and has indicated Moscow would seek to limit Iran’s influence inside Syria as part of any negotiated settlement to the conflict”.
“This threat should be neutralised wisely and with closer interaction”, he was quoted as saying in a statement, meaning co-operation with Russian Federation.
The decree allows Russian Federation to help modify two cascades at Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment plant, to support Iranian efforts to export enriched uranium in exchange for raw uranium supplies, and to help Iran modernize its Arak heavy water reactor.
Photos of the meeting with Khamenei released by the Kremlin showed the two leaders sitting jovially, with an animated Putin smiling broadly. Assad’s fate was likely to dominate the agenda.
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Put differently, Russian Federation intends to outstrip the western countries scrambling for a share of the Iranian pie by offering to Tehran a vastly superior relationship that is attuned to its sense of destiny as an emerging power.
