Putin’s pivot to Iran is a strategic decision

[bemildred]

The Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Tehran on Monday assumes the nature of a landmark event in the politics and history of the Middle East. While the world community, especially the western powers, viewed the visit through the prism of an expected “strategic adjustment” in Russia’s stance – to borrow the words of US President Barack Obama – regarding the future of the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Putin’s mind was working on the larger canvas of a pivot to Iran that elevates the largely-transactional relationship so far to a partnership impacting the geopolitics of the Middle East.
Iran President Hassan Rouhani shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to attending the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, GECF, summit meeting in Tehran Monday

But first, the salients emerging out of Putin’s all-important two-hour meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as regards Syria:

Both Russia and Iran insist on an inclusive settlement in Syria in which the Syrian people should elect their future leadership through democratic elections.
The two countries disapprove of the prescriptive approach by the US and its allies regarding a Syrian settlement.
The two countries estimate that the US and its allies aim at realizing their ‘regime change’ agenda in Syria through diplomatic means after having failed to achieve the objective through military means during the four-year war.

Putin and Khamenei understand that a sustained attempt is being made by the US and European and Arab allies, “seeking to peel Russia away from its alliance with Iran,” as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported last week, quoting senior diplomats in Washington.

http://atimes.com/2015/11/putins-pivot-to-iran-is-a-strategic-decision/

[bemildred]

1. Iraqi Shia fighters prepare for the coming of Putin

Karbala, IRAQ - Nadim Kadhum has two wishes as he lies in the Imam Hussein hospital in Karbala, shot in the pelvic bone by an Islamic State sniper early last week near Baiji. One is to make a full and rapid recovery. The other is for Russia to strike targets in Iraq, just as it has been doing in Syria.

“If Russia can help, it would be a big support for us,” he told the Middle East Eye.

Standing beside the bed of his 28-year-old brother stood Salim, 21, also a soldier, who echoed his view. The Americans were not doing enough to help Iraqi forces in the fight against IS and in several cases they were hitting the wrong people. The Russians would be preferable.

Salim cited his experience in January near Ramadi, in the Sunni-dominated province of Anbar. "We were with an Iraqi army unit of about 150 men with six armoured personnel carriers," he said. We were ordered to stop because IS were in front of us.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/russia-gaining-support-1119874649

[bemildred]

2. Iran says U.S. has plan to divide Iraq

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday accused the United States of trying to divide Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines and urged Iraqis to withstand any such plans.

Shi'ite Muslim power Iran wields great influence in Iraq, which has a majority Shi'ite population. Its military advisers are helping direct Baghdad's campaign against Sunni Islamist militant group Islamic State, which seized around a third of Iraq's territory last year.

It was not clear if Khamenei was referring to a specific incident, but Iran has protested about U.S. policy in Iraq several times this year.

"The Americans must not be allowed to consider Iraq as their personal property ... and dare to openly talk about disintegration of Iraq," Khamenei said according to his website.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/11/24/uk-mideast-crisis-iraq-iran-idUKKBN0TD1NE20151124?rpc=401

[DetlefK]

3. Saudi-Arabia is allied with the US and Saudi-Arabia is rivals with Iran, so...

It's a natural choice for Russia to approach Iran diplomatically.



Oh, and both want to secure that a friendly government in the mold of Assad stays in power in Syria.

[bemildred]

4. Russia starts S-300 surface-to-air missile systems delivery to Iran

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia has started delivering S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran, the latter’s ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanaei said, according to RT.

Iran is thus getting one of the latest versions of the air defense systems.

The news was not welcome in Washington, with the U.S. State Department spokesperson Mark Toner reiterating the country’s stance on the issue in a briefing on Monday, November 23.

Russia and Iran earlier signed a contract for Moscow to supply Tehran with S-300 surface-to-air missile systems.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/201168/

[bemildred]

5. . nt

[Jefferson23]

6. U.S. and Syria: Focus on the Saudi Factor

How terror attacks in Paris calls for revising U.S. policy in Syria.
By Gareth Porter, November 24, 2015

It’s the right time for Obama to rethink the administration’s policy toward both Assad and his jihadist foes.

In the wake of the ISIS terrorist attack on Paris, President Barack Obama declared that his administration has the right strategy on ISIS and will “see it through”. But the administration is already shifting its policy.

This includes cooperating more closely with the Russians on Syria. An influential former senior intelligence official has also suggested that the administration needs to give more weight to the Assad government and the Syrian Army as the main barrier to ISIS and other jihadist forces in Syria.

Obama’s Europeans allies as well as U.S. national security officials have urged the United States to downgrade the official U.S. aim of achieving the departure of Bashar al-Assad from Syria in the international negotiations that begun last month and continued last weekend.

Such a shift in policy, however, would make increasingly clear the contradictions between the U.S. interests and those of the Saudis. The latter continue to support jihadist forces fighting with al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, al-Nusra Front.

http://www.theglobalist.com/syria-diplomacy-vienna-paris-attacks-obama-russia-isis/

[bemildred]

7. +1.

It will be interesting and informative to see where Obama comes down.