Russia will not allow Syria to be arena for Israel-Iran conflict, says Lavrov

January 21, 2021

Russia’s Foreign Minister insists that Moscow refuses to allow Syria to be used as an arena for confrontation between Israel and Iran, as tensions continue to escalate in the country with Israeli air strikes on Iranian targets. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Sergey Lavrov assured Israel that Russia would not allow threats and attacks to be directed towards the occupation state from Syria.

“Our dear Israeli colleagues,” said Lavrov, “if you have facts that your state is facing threats from Syrian territory, report the facts urgently and we will take every measure to neutralize the threat.”

Lavrov’s assurances followed a series of major air strikes by the Israelis on Iranian military sites within Syria. Israel has been targeting these regularly over the past few years in efforts to prevent the strengthening of Iran’s presence in the war-torn country.

The Russian Foreign Minister added that his country will not “chase” the US military out of Syria, nor will it engage in hostilities despite being opposed to its presence. US troops are largely based in south-east and east Syria where they guard the oilfields in Deir Ez-Zor province.

Lavrov reiterated that although Russia will not attack the US military, it will not engage in any dialogue with Washington on a political or diplomatic level with regard to Syria.

“We have contacts with the United States through military channels,” he explained, “not because we acknowledge the legitimacy of their presence in Syria, but simply because they must act within the framework of specific rules.”

While Russia supports the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the US largely supports the Kurdish militias in the north-east of the country along with some elements of the opposition, Iran has also been a key supporter of Assad. However, Tehran but is often seen as a threat to Moscow’s interests and influence in the country.

Moscow and Tehran have been seen as competitors for long-term interests in terms of their relations with the Assad regime, their economic stakes in the country and their military involvement. While both have assisted the regime militarily throughout the ongoing civil war – Russia in aerial power and mercenaries, and Iran in its funding of Damascus and the deployment of Shia militias – they have developed different economic strategies within the country, especially for the post-conflict period.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210121-russia-will-not-allow-syria-to-be-arena-for-israel-iran-conflict-says-lavrov/.

Iran begins war games near Azerbaijan border

Tehran (AFP)

Oct 1, 2021

The Iranian army’s ground forces began holding maneuvers near the country’s border with Azerbaijan on Friday, state media reported, despite criticism from its neighbor.

The exercises took place in open areas in northwestern Iran, said state television, which showed tanks, howitzers and helicopters firing at targets on the ground.

“We respect good neighborly relations but we do not tolerate the presence of Zionist regime (Israeli) elements and Islamic State terrorists in the region,” ground forces commander Brigadier General Kioumars Heydari told state TV.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had criticized the Iranian war games in an interview published on Monday.

“Every country can carry out any military drill on its own territory. It’s their sovereign right. But why now, and why on our border?” he told Turkish news agency Anadolu.

His comments were rebuffed by Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh.

“The drills carried out by our country in the northwest border areas… are a question of sovereignty,” Khatibzadeh said in a statement on Tuesday.

Iran and Azerbaijan share a border of around 700 kilometers (430 miles).

A major supplier of arms to Azerbaijan, Israel came under diplomatic fire from Armenia during last year’s conflict between the Caucasus neighbors.

Iran and Azerbaijan share a border of around 700 kilometers (430 miles).

Ethnic Azeris make up around 10 million of Iran’s 83 million people.

Source: Space War.

Link: https://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_begins_war_games_near_Azerbaijan_border_999.html.

Iran new president backs nuclear talks but berates US

 By Shaun Tandon

United Nations, United States (AFP)

Sept 21, 2021

Iran’s new ultraconservative president voiced support Tuesday in his international debut for reviving a nuclear accord even as he berated the United States, hailing what he described as its failures.

President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who succeeded a government that sought better relations with the West, called on the United States to fulfill its promises to end sanctions under the 2015 nuclear accord.

“The Islamic Republic considers useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive sanctions,” Raisi said in a recorded speech to the UN General Assembly.

Indirect talks brokered by the European Union have been on hiatus since June after months of negotiations with the previous government failed to secure a path forward.

Raisi repeated the clerical state’s stance that nuclear weapons are religiously prohibited, a position that has been met with skepticism notably by Israel, which has carried out a sabotage campaign to delay Iran’s nuclear work.

Nuclear weapons “have no place in our defense doctrine and deterrence policy,” Raisi said.

– Push for quick resumption –

Raisi is notorious among human rights advocates for his role as a judge during mass executions in 1988 when the Islamic republic was solidifying control, with some activists encouraging the West to shun him.

But Western powers, as well as China and Russia, say they see the value in restricting Iran’s nuclear program peacefully under the 2015 agreement, from which US President Joe Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump withdrew the United States.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he will meet Tuesday at the United Nations with Iran’s new foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and push him to restart the talks in Vienna “soon.”

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Germany, which remains in the nuclear accord, said it was urgent to resume negotiations, amid Western concerns that Iran could advance nuclear work.

“We’re not going to wait two or three months for the Iranian delegation to return to Vienna. It has to be quicker,” Maas told reporters.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, traveling with Raisi, said he expected a resumption of the indirect talks “in the coming weeks,” without giving an exact date.

President Biden, appearing in person in his own maiden UN speech, renewed his willingness to return the United States to the nuclear accord and lift sanctions.

“We’re prepared to return to full compliance if Iran does the same,” Biden said.

Iran has taken steps away from the accord to protest the sanctions and has insisted on a full lifting of economic pressure — while the Biden administration says only measures imposed by Trump over the nuclear program are on the table.

– ‘Failed miserably’ –

Raisi devoted most of his speech to fiery denunciations of the United States, pointing to the collapse of the Western-backed government in Afghanistan, as well as the mob attack of the US Capitol on January 6 by Trump supporters seeking to overturn his defeat.

The two events show that “the US hegemonic system has no credibility, whether inside or outside the country.”

“What is seen in our region today proves that not only the hegemonist and the idea of hegemony, but also the project of imposing Westernized identity, have failed miserably.”

Aiming squarely at US domestic politics, Raisi cited the slogans of Trump and Biden: “Today, the world doesn’t care about ‘America First’ or ‘America is Back.'”

The language was a marked difference from his moderate predecessor Hassan Rouhani, a fellow cleric, who called for allowing greater freedoms and interaction with the outside world.

But Raisi stopped short of the inflammatory language of previous president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, who isolated Iran on the international stage by calling for Israel’s destruction and denying the Holocaust.

Raisi nonetheless denounced Israel in terms sure to anger the Jewish state, calling it the largest sponsor of “state terrorism, whose agenda is to slaughter women and children in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Source: Space War.

Link: https://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_new_president_backs_nuclear_talks_but_berates_US_999.html.