(Tehran) Russian President Vladimir Putin secured Iran’s unconditional support for his country’s military campaign in Ukraine on Tuesday. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has denounced that the West opposes an “independent and strong” Russia.
Updated yesterday at 6:45 p.m.
Ali Khamenei argued that if Russia had not sent troops to Ukraine, it would have faced an attack from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) later, a statement that echoes the speech of Vladimir Putin and reflects increasingly close ties between Moscow and Tehran as they both face crippling Western sanctions.
NATO allies have boosted their military presence in Eastern Europe and supplied Ukraine with weapons to help counter the Russian attack.
“If the way had been opened to NATO, it would not recognize any limits or frontiers,” Ali Khamenei told Vladimir Putin. He went on to say that if Moscow hadn’t acted first, the Western alliance “would have waged a war” to return the Crimean peninsula that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 under Kyiv’s control.
On just his second trip abroad since Russian tanks entered his neighbor in February, Putin spoke with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about pressing issues facing the region. is facing, including the conflict in Syria and a UN-backed proposal to resume Ukrainian grain exports to alleviate the global food crisis.
As the West ramps up sanctions against Russia and the costly campaign drags on, Vladimir Putin is seeking to strengthen ties with Tehran, another target of tough US sanctions and a potential military and trade partner.
Turkey, which is a member of NATO, has found itself facing Russia in bloody conflicts in Azerbaijan, Libya and Syria. It even sold deadly drones that Ukrainian forces used to attack Russia. But Turkey has not imposed sanctions on the Kremlin, making it an indispensable partner for Moscow. Struggling with runaway inflation and a rapidly depreciating currency, Turkey is also relying on the Russian market.
Mr Erdogan hailed what he described as a “very, very positive approach” from Russia during talks with President Putin on grains last week in Istanbul. He is hopeful that an agreement will be reached and that “the resulting outcome will have a positive impact on the whole world”.
Speaking to Mr Erdogan at the start of their meeting, Vladimir Putin thanked him for his mediation to help “move forward” a deal on Ukrainian grain exports. “All the problems have not yet been solved, but it is good that there has been progress,” mentioned the Russian president.
Last week, UN, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish officials reached an agreement in principle on aspects of a deal to secure the export of 22 million tonnes of grain and other desperately needed agricultural products. needed, trapped in Ukrainian Black Sea ports by the fighting.
nuclear deal
The encounter also holds symbolic significance for Vladimir Putin’s domestic audience, showing Russia’s international influence even as it increasingly isolates itself and plunges deeper into confrontation with the West. It comes just days after US President Joe Biden visited Israel and Saudi Arabia — Tehran’s main rivals.
From Jerusalem and Jeddah, Mr Biden urged Israel and Arab countries to push back against Russian, Chinese and Iranian influence that has grown with the perception of America’s withdrawal from the region.
Israel enjoys good relations with Vladimir Putin, a necessity given the Russian presence in Syria, Israel’s northeast neighbor and frequent target of its airstrikes. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have refused to pump more oil beyond a plan approved by their energy alliance with Moscow.
But all countries — despite their longstanding rivalries — could agree to move closer to Iran, which has rapidly advanced its nuclear program since former US President Donald Trump abandoned Tehran’s atomic deal with Iran. world powers and reimposed crushing sanctions. Talks to restore the deal are at an impasse.
Cornered by the West and regional rivals, Iran’s government is ramping up uranium enrichment, suppressing dissent and grabbing headlines with optimistic and tough stances meant to keep Iran’s currency, the rial, from collapsing . With no sanctions relief in sight, Iran’s tactical partnership with Russia has become one of survival, even as Moscow appears to undermine Tehran on the oil black market.
In a sign of increasingly close military cooperation, Russian officials have visited an airfield in central Iran at least twice in recent weeks to examine Tehran’s armed drones for possible use in Ukraine. , according to the White House.
Vladimir Putin stressed the importance of close ties between Moscow and Tehran during his meetings with Iranian leaders.
“Our relations are developing at a good pace,” Vladimir Putin said at the start of the meeting with Iranian President Raisi. He added that the two countries have been working to “strengthen their international security cooperation and contribute significantly to the Syrian settlement”.
In a closing statement, he offered firm support to Tehran over the stalled nuclear deal, calling for its full relaunch and full lifting of sanctions against Iran to allow “free development of cooperation in all areas without any discrimination.
During their trilateral talks, the presidents discussed the decade-old conflict in Syria, where Iran and Russia have backed the government of President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey has supported the armed factions of the opposition. Russia intervened in the conflict in 2015, joining forces with Iranian forces and using its air power to bolster Assad’s army.
Turkish President Erdogan has focused on Turkey’s push to push US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters from its borders, following previous threats of a new military offensive in northern Syria. The planned operation is part of Turkey’s efforts to create a safe zone along its border with Syria that would encourage the voluntary return of Syrian refugees.
“The greatest favor that would be rendered to the Syrian people would be the complete withdrawal of the separatist terrorist organization from the territories it occupies,” Erdogan said.
In a reference to Turkey’s concerns, the three presidents said in a joint statement that they “reject all attempts to create new realities on the ground under the guise of combating terrorism, including illegitimate self-rule initiatives, and expressed their determination to oppose separatist programs”.
Humanitarian issues in Syria have also been front and center since Russia used its UN Security Council veto last week to restrict aid deliveries to 4.1 million people in the north- rebel-held western Syria after six months, instead of a year. Mr. Erdogan believes that six months was not enough.
President Raisi said all sides have demanded to expel US forces from Syria. Referring to the US military, Vladimir Putin denounced what he described as “attempts to cement an illegal foreign military presence and stir up separatist sentiments”.
In the field
Russian missiles hit towns and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine on Tuesday, hitting homes, a school and a community center.
In Kramatorsk, a town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province considered a likely occupation target by Russian forces, neighbors said at least one person was injured when a residential building of five floors was hit.
Russian forces also fired seven Kalibr cruise missiles overnight at the Odessa region in southern Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense assured that the strikes on the village of Bilenke had a legitimate military objective and “destroyed ammunition depots for weapons supplied by the United States and European countries”.
A local official disputed Moscow’s claim and said six people were injured.
“These strikes against peaceful people have a single objective: to intimidate the population and the authorities and keep them in constant tension”, denounced Serhiy Bratchuk, the president of the regional government of Odessa, on Ukrainian television.
At least two civilians have been killed and 15 others injured by Russian shelling across the country in the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office said in a morning update.
“There remains a high level of threat from missile strikes throughout Ukraine,” warned Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesman for the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In Donetsk province in eastern Ukraine, which was cut off from gas supplies and partly from water and electricity, one person was killed and two others injured.
The missile strikes came as the British military announced it believed Russia was facing “increasingly acute” problems in maintaining its manpower.