The Russian Account of the Strategic Agreement with the Islamic Republic
The Russian Account of the Strategic Agreement with the Islamic Republic
Iran and Russia are set to sign a strategic agreement during the first visit of Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of the Islamic Republic, to Moscow.
This document, known as the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement, envisions the expansion of political, economic, and defense interactions, and according to the Kremlin spokesperson, it will form the basis for bilateral agreements in various fields.
Recently, Kazem Jalali, Iran’s ambassador to Russia, announced that the new document consists of 47 clauses, but further details have not yet been disclosed. Since this document must be approved by the parliaments of both countries, the full text should be published soon. The new agreement is intended to replace a treaty signed by Russia and Iran in 2001. This document could be extended indefinitely every five years, but on its twentieth anniversary, Hassan Rouhani’s government sought to update the cooperation agreement with Russia. Subsequently, the thirteenth government declared strategic relations with China and Russia as its international priorities.
Following the signing of a long-term cooperation document with China, drafting a similar document with Russia was initiated, but its coordination took much longer than initially expected. Only with the onset of Russia’s war against Ukraine, where Iran’s role in supplying weapons and bypassing Western sanctions became prominent, did Moscow’s relations with Tehran reach a new level. Diplomatic sources told Russian media that the unprecedented expansion of interactions between the two countries necessitated the new agreement.
Russian media, in covering the news of the comprehensive agreement with Iran, have mainly focused on the following topics:
Is the agreement with Iran similar to Russia’s agreement with North Korea?
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, avoided giving a direct answer to this question from journalists and merely emphasized that this document is of great importance to Russia. A few months ago, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, stated that the agreement with Iran paves the way for expanding military-defense cooperation between the two countries. The Kommersant newspaper, citing a senior diplomat whose identity was not disclosed, described cooperation in defense and security matters as a significant part of the new document. However, in recent days, Kazem Jalali, the Iranian ambassador to Moscow, emphasized that the new document will not include a mutual defense clause similar to those mentioned in Russia’s agreements with North Korea and Belarus. According to TASS and quoting the Iranian ambassador in Russia, independence and self-sufficiency in defense and security are very important for Iran, and Tehran has no interest or need to participate in military alliances.
Meanwhile, Iran, alongside Belarus and North Korea, is among the supporters of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Following the signing of Russia’s treaty with North Korea last summer, Pyongyang has sent its soldiers to assist Russian troops and has openly increased the delivery of weapons.
Message to Donald Trump
Official representatives of Russia and Iran emphasize that the strategic cooperation agreement between Russia and Iran is the result of intense consultations over the past ten years and especially in the last two to three years, and it is not related to current international developments. However, all Russian media have declared the signing of the strategic cooperation agreement between Russia and Iran as a clear message to Donald Trump. According to RIA Novosti, Russia and Iran are taking a decisive step towards each other while Donald Trump, the elected President of the United States, is in favor of maximum pressure on Iran and does not rule out war with this country.
Vladimir Sazhin, an expert on Iranian affairs, said in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the work on this document took years. The fact that the groundwork for its signing was finally laid just days before Donald Trump’s entry into the White House means that Moscow and Tehran are sending a message to Washington that they are united against the West and, despite recent sanctions and turmoil in the Middle East, they are standing against the West. The Kommersant newspaper report emphasizes the same point: Russia and Iran, by signing the new agreement at a time when all eyes are on Washington and no one is sure of the new U.S. government’s steps, are sending Donald Trump both a positive message and a warning.
The newspaper added that, on the one hand, the governments of Russia and Iran want to show Trump that they are ready to cooperate, and on the other hand, they warn that a united front against the West has been formed, and if Washington pursues hostile steps, it will face a solid shield jointly held by Moscow and Tehran.
At the same time, according to this report, given the significant differences in Russia’s relations with Iran and U.S. policies towards Iran, it is not unlikely that Moscow and Tehran’s cooperation will face a serious challenge as soon as the new agreement is signed and become a factor of further tensions between Moscow and Tehran and Western countries, especially the United States.
Deepening Economic Cooperation
Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s Foreign Minister, on the eve of signing the new cooperation agreement with Russia, announced three important sections in this document: economic, scientific-technical, and cultural. Kazem Jalali, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow, in his new interview with TASS, called this document the key to deepening economic relations and expressed hope that with the signing of this document, the growing trend of trade-economic interactions between the two countries will continue. According to the Iranian ambassador in Russia, the trade interactions between the two countries last year increased to over four billion dollars. Iran’s customs statistics during the first nine months of the current solar year estimate trade exchanges with Russia at 19 billion dollars.
According to Nikita Samagin, an expert on Iranian affairs, this means that despite officials’ claims, the trade exchanges between the two countries, which peaked in 2020 and reached five billion dollars, have declined again and cannot increase further because the fundamental obstacles that have never allowed Iran and Russia to become significant trade partners still exist.
Differences between Strategic Partners
While media close to the Kremlin have turned a blind eye to the differences between Moscow and Tehran, Iranian officials’ emphasis that Tehran will not recognize the occupied territories of Ukraine as part of Russia has led to protests from Group Z. Group Z consists of reporters who support Russia’s war against Ukraine and has become one of the most important news sources in Russia on Telegram in a limited media space.
Opposition media to the Kremlin have reminded that despite close cooperation, the relations between Russia and Iran have been complex and accompanied by tensions. The Russian section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports on the differences between Moscow and Tehran regarding the occupied territories of Ukraine, the three islands, and the Zangezur corridor, Moscow’s failures to Tehran in implementing economic, nuclear, and military contracts, and the problems that arose for the two countries following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. Nikolai Meshadov, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, in an interview with the Russian section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, believes that the signing of the new agreement is only a historical step on paper and will not lead to fundamental changes in the relations between the two countries in practice.
The Moscow Times newspaper has written that Iran and Russia were suspicious of each other in the past and now do not trust each other. According to this report, the Iranian government wants to benefit from proximity to Russia, but with this step, it will provoke the protest of the Iranian people.
