Director General of the Institute for Caspian Cooperation, Sergey Mikheyev, presented a collection of expert articles titled "Iran and Russia in the Middle East," prepared by Russian and Iranian political scientists and scholars.
"Iran is our southern neighbor, we have a border along the Caspian Sea, we have a lot of mutual interests in the Caspian basin, we actively cooperate in the Middle East, unfortunately, resisting the destructive tendencies contributed by the activity of the US and its allies. At the same time, we also have an ideological, philosophical basis with Iran for "looking in the same direction." We have disagreements on some issues, both Russia and Iran in fact demonstrate an alternative way of existence, which the US globalisers try to adapt to their own interests, saying that the development path under the US protectorate, with US dominance, is the only way that has prospects for development. Those trying to demonstrate an alternative automatically become enemies of the United States," Sergei Mikheyev said.
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In his opinion, the Americans are imposing a false opposition on the world: "They say that progress is the US and the West, and all the rest, for example, such countries as Iran or Russia, is a regression. This is an artificial opposition. Russia and Iran are intended to demonstrate a harmonious compromise between tradition and modernization, and they can achieve success against the background of this compromise. This is exactly what the people promoting the idea of a global one-sided, one-dimensional, linear, flat world do not like about it. A number of objective circumstances makes Iran and Russia have enough common interests and enough common challenges in order to maintain close cooperation. I hope that it will develop both for the benefit of Russia and for the benefit of Iran, especially since the present rather complicated geopolitical situation further encourages us to this. We would like to live differently, but, unfortunately, the current situation and the irresponsible activity of Americans forces us to react more forcefully and look at this world rather frankly. "
Speaking at the presentation, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Russia Mehdi Sanai expressed the opinion that Iranian-Russian relations are important for the entire region: "Think about what the region would look like if there was no such cooperation between Iran and Russia. Indeed, two or three years ago the situation in Iraq and Syria developed differently. I was a participant and an observer of most of the talks that were held between Iran and Russia. These were difficult, very serious negotiations. Now we see the results of this cooperation - an incomparably more stable situation in Syria and Iraq. Our cooperation is aimed at combating terrorism, Iran and Russia fought against terrorism without double standards in an earnest and frank manner, helped Syria's legitimate structures, and obtained results, including cooperating with Turkey. World events make Iranian-Russian relations more necessary than in the past. The book 'Iran and Russia in the Middle East' help understand the views of Iranian and Russian authors. I hope that we can take other steps in this regard as well."
