According to a report by Al Arabiya, Iran is expected to sign a strategic partnership with Russia. This partnership resembles one that was finalized with China earlier in 2021.
.“The initial arrangements of this document, entitled the Global Agreement for Cooperation between Iran and Russia, have been concluded,” said foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on October 11, 2021.
“We are in the process of finalizing diverse clauses of the document and we will send it to Moscow,” he informed reporters. “In recent years, it has become necessary to improve relations between Iran and Russia and to concentrate on strategic partnerships,” Khatibzadeh continued.
“Between Iran, China and Russia, the eastern axis is emerging.” Khatibzadeh noted that Iran has expectations of signing the document in the upcoming months.
He added that Tehran hopes the document will be signed in the coming months. For some context, Iran signed a 25-year strategic and commercial agreement with China back in March. This move represented a growing rapprochement between the two countries over the last decade.
Similarly, Iran was accepted into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a multinational security structure that China and Russia are spearheading to counter the Anglo-American geopolitical order. It’s clear the geopolitical winds are blowing in directions that DC does not desire.
Talks that Iran was somehow weakened by sanctions are misguided at best. It now has spheres of influence in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. On top of that, the hostile actions that American governments have pursued — sanctions, regime change efforts, hacks against its infrastructure, and assassinations — have made it clear that the West is not worth trying to confide in.
As a result of signing agreements with China and Russia, and joining their overall security umbrella, Iran will grow even stronger thanks to it receiving arms and financial support from these Eurasian behemoths. American policymakers have not picked up on this reality, because they are still trapped in a 90s mindset when the US was a unipolar power.
The failure to recognize this new geopolitical reality could lead the US to embark on some dangerous foreign policy decisions. Humiliating military reversals could absolutely be in the cards.
Hopefully, more sober minds who pursue foreign policy restraint and realism start to gain prominence in DC. If not, the US could find itself sleep-walking into a military confrontation with two Eurasian heavyweights (Russia and China) and their numerous appendages (Iran) that will give it a run for its money.
