Iran has been working with Russia in the framework of “strategic partnership” based on mutual interests, but is not an “alliance” with an eastern or western power, says Iran’s point man on the Middle East, who has been working closely with Russia on the Syrian issue.
Asked about the nature of Iran’s relationship with Russia, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, a top aide to the Iranian foreign minister, told Press TV in a recent interview that the Islamic Republic has since its foundation defined itself as independent of any global power but has recognized and duly entered into “partnerships” with countries within the framework of its national interests.
He meticulously differentiated between a “strategic alliance”, which he said was an obsolete practice of the Cold War-era and never in the policy toolkit of the Islamic Republic, and “strategic partnership”.
“Russia is not our strategic ally; neither are we Russia’s strategic ally, in the sense that was very popular particularly in the bipolar era [of international politics], in the era of blocs and great […] alliances,” he said.
“We don’t have a strategic alliance with Russia, but we have a strategic partnership [with it], in specific projects, based on specific mutual interests—and in spite of the differences we have [with Moscow]—and we can continue to have [such partnership] in the future, too.”
Ansari said Iran “exited the framework of alliances and affiliations with powers in the West and the East” after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The Islamic Republic, he said, has achieved its national independence “at great cost” and will not let that independence be dented in any shape or form.
“Neither in its relations with Russia, nor in its relations with any other power will Iran move to violate its own national independence,” he said.
Valuable Relationship
Ansari stressed that Iran highly values its relationship with Russia for a number of factual reasons.
“Russia is our neighbor to the north [and] is a large neighbor and a global power. These are facts,” he said. “The same rule that governs our relations with all our neighbors applies to Russia all the more.”
The official stressed that no Iranian administration or politician can afford to ignore the fact that Russia is Iran's globally powerful neighbor.
In his official capacity as senior assistant to the Iranian foreign minister on special political affairs, Ansari has been working with Russia and Turkey in a peace process for crisis-hit Syria.
Iran and Russia, allies of the Syrian government, have been giving Damascus advisory military help in coordination with one another to help the Arab country counter an array of militant groups seeking to violently topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russia has also been carrying out an aerial bombardment campaign in Syria on behalf of the Syrian government.
In addition, Ansari said China, too, is another regional country that, although not in Iran’s immediate neighborhood, has on various occasions—“in times of difficulty, at times of sanctions, conflicts, and wars”—been willing to cooperate and is thus well looked upon inside Iran.
“But none of that means that we are part of global blocs, or [involved in] East-West disputes, or that we have become subordinate to the East or the West,” he said.
