Tehran ready to participate in settlement of relations between Moscow and Ankara

Iran has recently joined the number of countries willing to contribute to the normalization of relations between Russia and Turkey, which worsened after the downing of the Russian Su-24 aircraft by the Turkish Air Force. The Vice-President of the Islamic Republic, Ishaq Jahangiri, stated this at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who agreed to start a dialogue with Moscow.

The Deputy Director of the Institute of Forecasting and Political settlement, Alexander Kuznetsov, stressed in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that it would be advantageous for Iran to achieve a solution to this problem, as Tehran has the necessary thing for it. "Iran has very good relations with Russia and Turkey, but in the economy the situation is reversed: a huge trade turnover with Turkey and smaller with Russia. It also has some joint projects with both countries. In these circumstances, it is beneficial for Iran to participate in the reconciliation of the parties, as it may create for it the necessary positive PR in regional and international politics," Kuznetsov said.

However, he warned that the efforts of the mediators will be ineffective up to the end of the war in Syria. "I'm still skeptical about this possibility of mediation, because the current competition between Turkey and Russia is due to geopolitical reasons,'' the expert said.

The head of the department of Eurasian integration and development of the SCO CIS Institute, Vladimir Yevseyev, said Iran's participation in the conflict between Russia and Turkey as a mediator would be helpful, but we should bear in mind Tehran will have to use specific tools for this purpose because of the difficult Iranian-Turkish relations.

"For example, Ali Akbar Velayati, the assistant of spiritual leader Ali Khamenei, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs. This person can be a mediator. It is determined by his status and access to the supreme leader or President Hassan Rouhani. The success of a mediator from Iran depends on the influence of the person both in the Islamic Republic and how he is respected by the Russian party. A lot of things depend on the person,’’ he said, adding that unofficial intermediary activity won’t be useful without official contacts between Moscow and Ankara.

"Turkey is always trying to show that it wants to resume relations with the Russian Federation, but it is a provocation. Today there was a ship which prevented a Turkish ship from vessel from moving near Crimea, yesterday there was a trawler that was at a dangerous distance from a Russian patrol vessel. The Turkish authorities are demonstrating a continuous ambivalence. This was evident at the recent meeting between Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko. The minister made a statement that he had a good conversation with Matviyenko, and the chairman of the Federation Council only informed about the meeting, stressing its informality,’’ Vladimir Yevseyev noted.