Iran could emerge as an unintended winner in the escalating
crisis over Ukraine. That is, if Russian troops cross the Ukrainian border and
talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement fail.
اضافة اعلان
An imposition of tough US and European sanctions in response
to any Russian incursion in Ukraine could make Russia more inclined to ignore
the fallout of violating US sanctions in its dealings with Iran.
By the same token, a failure of the talks between Iran and
the US, Russia, China, the EU, France, Germany, and Britain to revive the
accord that curbed the Islamic republic’s nuclear program would drive Iran
closer to Russia and China in its effort to offset crippling US sanctions.
US and European officials warned that time is running out on
the possibility of reviving the agreement from which the US under
then-president Donald J. Trump withdrew in 2018.
The officials said Iran was weeks away from acquiring the
know-how and capability to produce enough nuclear fuel for a bomb quickly.
That, officials suggested, would mean that a new agreement would have to be
negotiated, something Iran has rejected.
No doubt, that was in the back of the minds of Russian and
Iranian leaders when they met last week during a visit to Moscow by Iran’s
President Ebrahim Raisi. It was the first meeting between the leaders of Russia
and Iran in five years.
To be sure, the road to increased Russian trade, energy
cooperation, and military sales would open with harsh newly imposed US
sanctions against Russia even if restrictions on Iran would remain in place.
That does not mean that the road would be obstacle free.
Russian President Vladimir Putin would still have to balance relations with
Iran with Russia’s ties to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
If anything, Russia’s balancing act, like that of China, has
become more complicated without the Ukraine and Vienna variables as
Iranian-backed Houthis expand the 7-year-long Yemen war with drone and missile
strikes against targets in the UAE.
The Houthis struck as the Russian, Chinese and Iranian
navies started their third joint exercises since 2019 in the northern Indian
Ocean. The two events were not related.
US dithering over its commitments to security in the Gulf
has persuaded Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE to hedge their bets and
diversify the nature of their relations with major external powers.
However, a Russia and potentially a China that no longer are
worried about the fallout of violating US sanctions against Iran could put
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi on notice that the two US rivals may not be more reliable
or committed to ensuring security in the Gulf. So far, neither Russia nor China
indicated an interest in stepping into the US shoes.
This leaves Saudi Arabia and the UAE with few good choices
if Russia feels that US sanctions are no longer an obstacle in its dealings
with Iran.
Against the backdrop of talk about a proposed 20-year
cooperation agreement between the two countries, Russia appears to want to
negotiate a free trade agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union
that groups Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, alongside Russia.
Iran has signed a similar 25-year cooperation agreement with
China that largely remains a statement of intent at best rather than an action
plan that is being implemented.
Like in the case of China, the draft agreement with Russia
appears to have been an Iranian rather than a Russian initiative. It would
demonstrate that Iran is less isolated than the US would like it to be and that
the impact of US sanctions can be softened.
“We have a document on bilateral strategic cooperation,
which may determine our future relations for the next 20 years. At any rate, it
can explain our prospects,” Raisi said as he went into his talks with Putin.
For now, Raisi’s discussions in Moscow appear to have
produced more lofty prospects than concrete deals.
Media speculation that Russia would be willing to sell Iran
up to $10 billion in arms, including Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 anti-missile
defense systems, appear to have remained just that, speculation. Saudi Arabia
and the UAE would view the sale to Iran of such weapons as particularly
troublesome.
By the same token, Iranian officials, including Finance
Minister Ehsan Khanduzi and Oil Minister Javad Owji, spoke of agreements signed
during the Moscow visit that would revive a $5 billion Russian credit line that
has been in the pipeline for years and produce unspecified energy projects.
Theoretically, the dynamics of the Ukraine crisis and the
prospects of failed Vienna talks could mean that a long-term Russian Iranian
cooperation agreement could get legs quicker than its Chinese Iranian
counterpart.
Negotiating with a Russia heavily sanctioned by the US and
Europe in an escalated crisis in Ukraine could level the playing field as both
parties, rather than just Iran, would be hampered by Western punitive measures.
Tehran-based Iranian scholar and political analyst Sadegh
Zibakalam suggested that it was time for the regime to retire the 43-year-old
Iranian revolution’s slogan of “neither East nor West”. The slogan is
commemorated in a plaque at the foreign ministry.
Asserting that Iran has not adhered to the motto for a long
time, Zibakalam suggested that the plaque be removed and stored in the basement
of a hardline Tehran newspaper.
“It has not been used for a long time and should
be taken down,” he tweeted.
The writer is an award-winning journalist and
scholar and a senior fellow at the National University of
Singapore’s Middle East Institute.
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