The era of NATO has come to an end from Tehran

by time news

The second day of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Russia was devoted to visiting the State Duma, Moscow State University and the Moscow Cathedral Mosque. Everywhere he found pleasant words for his listeners and especially pleased the deputies with the prediction of the imminent end of NATO. While the Iranian president was winning the hearts of his hosts, the team of ministers who arrived with him was negotiating with Russian partners on the parameters of economic cooperation, primarily in the field of oil and gas. The Iranians are very enthusiastic about the past talks, but the Russian expert community doubts that Russian big business will go to Iran.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi began the second day of his visit to Russia with a visit to the State Duma. The deputies greeted him with applause and standing. The President’s speech was short – only 25 minutes, which is very concise by Eastern standards. During this time, Mr. Raisi managed to congratulate the deputies and the Russian people on the past Christmas and New Year, lament the separation of modern society from spiritual bonds, and also recall that Iran is not engaged in the creation of nuclear weapons, no matter what anyone says. “This is not part of our defense strategy,” he said, adding that the IAEA has already confirmed 15 times that there are no violations in Iran’s nuclear activities.

Ebrahim Raisi preferred not to mention the claims and reproaches of the IAEA, which were mentioned recently.

He also confirmed that Tehran is ready to reach agreements on a nuclear deal during the ongoing negotiations in Vienna, if the West “effectively and seriously removes anti-Iranian sanctions.” There were no signals in this regard from the Western participants in the negotiations – the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany – did not sound. True, the day before, US President Joe Biden announced “some progress” at the Vienna talks.

A special place in Ebrahim Raisi’s speech was given to bilateral relations. He briefly mentioned a three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin the day before, during which both leaders agreed that more efforts should be made to develop ties. The President of Iran called on the deputies of the State Duma to do the same. According to him, a successful example of cooperation between Iran and Russia in Syria “may become an effective model” for the development of bilateral relations in various areas. And the main thing that needs to be done to ensure the interests of both countries, Ebrahim Raisi emphasized, is “to prevent the penetration of third elements into internal affairs.”

Based on his words, the third elements are the US and NATO. “NATO is engaged in penetration into the geographical spaces of countries under various pretexts and cover, it threatens independent states,” the Iranian leader said.

And he immediately added, pouring balm on the hearts of the Russian deputies, that such behavior would ultimately lead to the collapse of the North Atlantic Alliance.

The United States also got it, which, according to Mr. Raisi, “are now in the weakest positions.” “Nevertheless, we see that the desire for an expansionist policy has not disappeared, on the contrary, they include it in their agenda, and the most important goal is to weaken independent states precisely from within. This is done by imposing economic sanctions and destabilizing the internal situation in the country,” the president said. Most of the Russian deputies would certainly have signed these words. True, one cannot say that the applause was stormy, except at the end, when Ebrahim Raisi, leaving the hall of the plenary sessions of the State Duma, called on the blessings of Allah on all those present. The camera at that moment snatched out the enlightened face of the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov.

After the State Duma, President Raisi went to Moscow State University, where rector Viktor Sadovnichy presented him with an honorary professor’s diploma and a bouquet of flowers.

“Ebrahim Raisi is being awarded the title of Honorary Professor of Moscow University, which guarantees him rights, honors and privileges,” the rector said and invited the President of Iran to address the audience. The speech, however, was not included in the story, spread by the Iranian agency IRNA. Although it is unlikely that it differed greatly from what was said in the State Duma.

The President of Iran also found complete mutual understanding in the Moscow Cathedral Mosque with the chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Russian Federation, Ravil Gainutdin. Their private conversation initially did not involve media coverage, but apparently the Iranian journalists did not know about it. The Tasnim agency quoted both interlocutors as deeply immersed in religious issues. It was about the damage to Islam from those who adhere to extremist beliefs. Mr. Raisi outlined and against whom Iran and Russia are fighting in Syria – “not against infidels, but against agents of arrogance (USA.— “b”) and the Zionist regime (Israel.— “b”)”. For his part, Mr. Gainutdin noted the importance of Ebrahim Raisi’s meeting with President Putin for Russian Muslims, and, as it turned out, not only Russian Muslims. The head of the Council of Muftis said that after a photo of the President of Iran performing namaz (Muslim prayer) in the Kremlin, he received letters from different countries after the photo of the President of Iran performing namaz (Muslim prayer) in the Kremlin was distributed on all social networks and the media. “Your prayer in the Kremlin was very symbolic and meaningful, and they wrote to me from Finland that a blessing has descended on the Kremlin,” Tasnim quoted Mr. Gainutdin or his translator as saying.

While the Iranian president was winning the hearts and souls of his interlocutors, the ministers of foreign affairs, oil, economy and finance who came with him met with their Russian partners, having been instructed to immediately implement the decisions taken by the two presidents to intensify bilateral relations. Recall that on the eve of Ebrahim Raisi said that Tehran handed over to Moscow a draft agreement on strategic cooperation for a period of 20 years. Now it is important that the process of agreeing on the document, which has been talked about for two years, be accelerated. In the meantime, Iranian Economy Minister Ehsan Khanduzi announced that an agreement had been reached on the creation of a “$5 billion support line” and other agreements in the trade and economic sphere, while Oil Minister Javad Ouji said that the Iranian side had agreed with Russian companies on the development of gas and oil fields, construction of oil refineries, as well as the transfer of technology and process equipment. Which companies were discussed was not reported, but the Iranians, judging by the headlines in the media, are encouraged by the past negotiations.

However, in Russian expert circles, they believe that oil and gas companies have no interest in Iran, and in infrastructure projects, Russia is much inferior to China both in terms of competence and funding opportunities. That is, no large Russian private business will come to Iran. One of the reasons is US sanctions. Thus, in 2018, Zarubezhneft, the only Russian company that received a contract in Iran for the development of the Aban and Western Peydar fields, sold its Iranian structure, ZN Vostok, to the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Promsyrieimport to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation. And just Promsyrieimport, which fell under US sanctions in the same 2018 on suspicion of supplying Iranian oil to Syria, may be a candidate for work in Iran, like other companies that are already under sanctions.

Marianna Belenkaya

You may also like

Leave a Comment