The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, with his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, this Tuesday in Tehran /
The leaders of the three countries meet to address, among other issues, the situation in Ukraine and Syria, as well as the possible sale of drones from Tehran to Moscow
In the midst of the current conflict with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Tehran on Tuesday to meet with his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, and with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The three leaders held a tripartite meeting, in addition to the separate meetings in a bilateral format. Ukraine and Syria were the contents that monopolized the conversations.
On the 13th, a meeting at the technical level of Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and United Nations representatives, including military experts, was held in Istanbul to unblock the export of Ukrainian cereals. After the meeting, there was talk of approximation of positions and the imminent creation of a “coordination center” to ensure that maritime routes run safely, but a possible final decision was postponed to the current week. There was even speculation that Putin and Erdogan could announce a pre-agreement in Tehran or set a new meeting in Istanbul for the next few days. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said on Tuesday that “we hope that the talks will resume shortly.”
On Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that “a final document” is already prepared to allow the exit through the Black Sea of some 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain stored in the port of Odessa and at the same time allow Russia to also export its grain and fertilizers.
On Monday, the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, also expressed hope that “this week” the long-awaited agreement will be reached once and for all. German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, for his part, questioned Moscow’s credibility by saying that “those who still believe in Putin’s word, can also believe in Santa Claus or the Easter bunny.”
Iranian nuclear program
Putin and Raisi later discussed the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, although the most pressing issue must have had to do with the eventual sale by Tehran to Moscow of drones for use in Ukraine, despite the fact that the Iranian authorities have reiterated that they do not there is such an intention. The American national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, assured last week that Russian specialists went on June 8 and July 5 to the Iranian Kashan airfield to witness two exhibitions of the operation of the Shahed-191 and Shahed-129 drones. Then on Monday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price stated that “in the face of a possible Iranian supply of drone technology to Russia. We will continue to monitor very closely. All of our sanctions remain in place. Any such transaction would involve a series of additional sanctions that we have in our portfolio and presumably a series of sanctions that countries around the world have planned.
Syria has been another of the central issues of the summit and a solution has not been glimpsed either. For a few weeks, Turkey has been threatening to launch a military offensive in northern Syria against the Kurds with the aim of establishing a “security zone” from the border and 30 kilometers inland. Moscow has asked Ankara to desist from such an idea, and Iran is on the side of Russia in this regard. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Erdogan that any forceful action by Turkey in northern Syria would be “detrimental” to the region.
The truth is that there has been no substantial progress on any of the issues under discussion at this summit in Tehran, convened within the framework of the so-called Astana process, which Moscow, Tehran and Ankara launched in 2017 to promote peace in Syria. It seems to be a trip organized by the Kremlin with the aim of showing internally that Russia is not isolated internationally.