Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's visit to Moscow and his more than five-hour talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded this week's great Middle East marathon in Moscow, which passed in one breath.
Prior to that, Vladimir Putin first made blitz visits to Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, and then, after returning to Moscow, spoke with Crown Prince and Minister of Youth, Culture and Sports of Oman Ziyazin bin Haitham Al Said on the sidelines of the Russia Calling international forum.
All these events, which took place in a strategically important region where the interests of world powers – the United States (and its European partners), China and Russia – traditionally clash, became part of Moscow's great Middle East marathon. The fact that the culmination of this marathon was the Russian-Iranian negotiations seems quite natural.
Let's see why.
Despite the fact that the volume of Russian-Iranian trade remains very modest – only $5 billion (for example, our trade turnover with Turkey is 12 times more – $60 billion) – the strategic partnership between Moscow and Tehran in an increasingly conflictual world is truly invaluable for each of the parties. This partnership makes it possible to effectively resist the pressure of the West and its destructive expansion not only in the Middle East, but also far beyond its borders.
In a sense, Moscow and Tehran are in the same boat, and it is impossible to sink it, no matter how much one would like to.
Aircraft carriers aiming at the Russian-Iranian submarine are more likely to sink, get holes or face a fire on board.
During the talks with President Raisi, Vladimir Putin joked about Russian-Iranian relations, explaining what makes them unique. Returning to Moscow from Riyadh, he said, he even wanted to land in Tehran to meet with the Iranian leader as soon as possible. "Yesterday, you know, I was there in a neighboring region. And I flew directly over the territory of your country and wanted to land and meet right in Tehran, but I was told that the president was already going to fly to Moscow," Vladimir Putin said. The Iranian leader replied that he would be quite satisfied with such a scenario.
The agenda of the Russian-Iranian talks, which were held in Moscow as planned, included both bilateral and international topics, as well as a discussion of the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone.
However, speaking about the Iranian leader's visit to Moscow, it makes no sense to single out any one issue and talk about what was the most important thing in the talks. It was a rare case in international practice when everything was the most important.
Assessing the results of the Russian-Iranian talks, John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, began to speculate that Iran intends to receive Russian weapons, but Washington does not have accurate data on this matter: "Iran probably also wants to get something out of this. And we have reason to believe that they want to get their hands on some sophisticated Russian defense technology, military helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles."
"It's not just bad for Ukraine, it's really bad for the Middle East," John Kirby lamented.
In general, the Russian-Iranian submarine is feared on board an American aircraft carrier. And they are doing the right thing – let them be afraid.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.