Officially, Syria is on the agenda at the meeting of the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey this Tuesday in Tehran.

The host, Ebrahim Raisi, convened the summit as part of the so-called Astana process, in which the three states have been coordinating their actions in Syria since July 2017.

The war will certainly play a role in the talks there;

All three countries are actively involved in Syria and sometimes pursue conflicting interests there.

But the only topic of the meeting in Tehran will not be Syria - and for two of the three presidents it is probably not even the most important.

Rainer Herman

Editor in Politics.

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Reinhard Veser

Editor in Politics.

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Iran's primary interest is to counterbalance the new axis that is taking shape between Israel and the Gulf Arab States following US President Joe Biden's trip to the Middle East.

For Russian President Vladimir Putin, all foreign policy is currently dominated by his war against Ukraine.

Syria is only in the foreground for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In May he announced an invasion of northern Syria in order to form a so-called security zone of 30 kilometers.

Of course, this is not possible without the consent of Russia and Iran – and they will not be willing to do so without consideration.

Iran is currently of particular interest to the Russian leadership because it wants to learn from its experience with the pressure of foreign sanctions.

When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Tehran at the end of June, his main concern was how to make his economy independent of the "vagaries and quirks of our western partners".

Contrary to the optimistic-sounding propaganda of the pro-Kremlin media, Russian economists and the government are aware that Western sanctions will soon have serious and long-lasting negative effects on the Russian economy.

Moscow is now watching with great interest how Iran, which has been hit to varying degrees by sanctions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is dealing with it.

Complications in Moscow's relationship with Tehran

In addition, from a Russian perspective, given the constant confrontation with the West, it is more important than ever to intensify ties with all countries that are in constant conflict with the United States.

But the relationship between Tehran and Moscow is complicated.

In Syria, both support the dictator Bashar al-Assad, but they are also competitors there.

And open disagreements regularly break out between the governments.

As recently as the weekend, the Russian ambassador in Tehran publicly accused the Islamic Republic of not paying several hundred million dollars in debt.

Further expensive arms purchases by Iran in Russia are thus in the distant future.