There exist a number of speculations regarding the lifting of sanctions and re-engagement of many western corporations investing in Iran creating a significant impact on Iran’s relations with Russia. Different perspectives suggest that a resurgent Iran would contend with Russia as a significant exporter of oil and gas, which would compel Moscow to thwart Iran building up its oil and gas potential.
Be that as it may, any projection of Tehran-Moscow relations should be considered in larger canvas, particularly the role Iran is playing in Moscow’s foreign strategy to concentrate all the more strongly on Asia. Moreover, taking into account that Russia has been one of the dynamic actors from the six other world powers’ debating the nuclear terms with Tehran, it is therefore logical to accept that Moscow has been ensuring its interests in Iran and the Middle Eastern region.
It is a fact that Moscow has had a multifaceted strategic approach toward Iran’s nuclear deal. Proceeding to the rise of President Hassan Rouhani’s arrangement of engagement, Moscow utilized the Iranian card to secure special considerations from USA and its allies. However, Tehran’s more appeasing approach towards West on many events has remarkably altered the strategic statement. The ensuing changes can likewise also clarify the remarkable state to state meetings between Tehran and Moscow during the past decade.
Russia’s military presence in Syria which is astonishing to most experts as it shows Russia’s geopolitical aspirations. Interestingly, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow in many years chose to participate militarily outside of its alleged Near Abroad.
In any case, Russian air strikes were conceived a long time before, for no less than three months since the time that Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most effective officer and head of Quds Force who is in direct contact with Ayatollah Khamenei, was accounted to visit Moscow in July 2015. By reports, Soleimani’s visits to Moscow and meeting with President Vladimir Putin was the initial step that prompted the vast Russian military presence in Syria.
To everyone’s disbelief, Russia purposefully dishonored UN sanctions by organizing such questionable visit. It may be a case that Tehran demanded that only Soleimani should visit and meet Putin in person to talk about the Russian outlay in the Syria battle. Yet, what constrained the Russian president to acknowledge these dangerous terms from Iran?
Russia unmistakably has a great deal to lose if Iran recovers from its political and financial part in Eurasia once there are no confining measures set up. The Russian-Iranian marriage of comfort is liable to end once the two will begin to oppose each other on European and Asian energy markets. Iran is prepared to invest huge number of extra barrels of oil into the business sector, likely applying much more prominent descending pressure on the cost of oil.
Many Russian corporations have consented to various arrangements with Iranian firms from flight to farming over the previous year are liable to be sidelined by European and American organizations with more modern technology.
During various gatherings between Russian and Iranian authorities, including the ones happening along the sidelines of nuclear debate, Tehran was noticeably negotiating from relatively higher position. Iranians likely understood the apprehension of losing a geopolitical accomplice that was inching over Russian authorities and exploited it.
By sources in Russia, Soleimani’s visit to Moscow was the final nail in progression of a number of meetings conducted before where Tehran proposed an arrangement that Moscow could not risk to refuse. The Iranian administration may have requested Moscow to participate in Syria in return for the progression of the Russia-Iran union in the occasion as sanctions were to be removed. As it was Putin who required assurances from Iran at a critical time for the Russian economy, he essentially couldn’t refuse such a proposition.
While authorities present Russia’s air movement in Syria as a cautious computation, it could only be an exchange, which is important to secure the nation’s political and financial interest along the Middle East. Tehran’s impact over Moscow whether to deliver its presence in the Syria crusade likewise clarifies why Iran rushed to give flyover rights to Russian Syria-bound payload planes when European nations shut its air space for Russians’.
But the question is still intact as to, why Russians took more than two months to dispatch its air campaign in Syria. The answer is the domestic political element in the United States. Russia was keeping its existence in Syria on low level as Iran nuclear deal was under rigorous scrutiny from the Republicans in the U.S. Senate.
Russia and Iran have intense history loaded with clashes that are established in both nations’ aspirations of being a regional force. Many in Moscow trust that, once both states are not entwined by a common adversary, Iran without a doubt will begin its inclination toward the West and possibly a collaboration with United States against Russia. The belief in Moscow is that, if this truth be told happens, Russia might begin to lose its impact not only in the Middle East but also in the world.