When sanctions are eliminated, Tehran turns to West

By Vestnik KavkazaRussia and Iran will develop military and technical cooperation, considering the current political situation in the world, Defense Minister of Russia Sergei Shoygu and his Iranian colleague Hossein Dehgan stated on Friday after a bilateral meeting in Moscow. It wasn’t reported whether any agreements were reached; but experts say that Iran could be a major partner of Russia in the sphere of military cooperation in the context of tense relations with the West.
On the same day the IAEA Director General Yukia Amano expressed concern about possible undeclared military activity of Iran in the nuclear sphere.According to Vladimir Sazhin, senior research fellow at the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, “Iran is fulfilling the requirements of the treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Any country has the right to do so, but within the framework of the international treaties of the IAEA and under strict international control. The question is - what should be the limits of the Iranian nuclear programme and how should it be controlled? Of course the Americans don't want Iran to move towards Russia, this is clear. When the sanctions are removed, Iran will turn to the West, first of all to Western Europe because of the economic opportunities. Iran desperately needs investments in all sectors of its economy. Secondly, Iran needs high technologies of the highest level. Everything Iran is doing, even in the nuclear sphere, is yesterday's technology. The best technologies are in the US and in Western Europe.”At the same time, Radzhab Safarov, general director of the Center for Contemporary Iranian Studies, thinks that the West tries to press Iran for the maximum concessions, attempting to include, in the text of the agreement between Iran and the six powers, points that would guarantee the directions of Iran's activity in high technology and nuclear energy with some countries. “I mean the requirements of the European countries to include the point that Iran in the development of its nuclear energy can cooperate only with the big European energy companies. This is a very cynical position to isolate Iran from Russia, to move Russia away from the Iranian energy sector, to deprive Russia of prospective, super-effective contracts with the energy sector of Iran,” Safarov says.He predicts that the situation in Ukraine could lead to a new wave of tension between the West, mostly the US, and Russia. This is already happening. To compensate and minimize the effect of the American sanctions, Russia will search for opportunities with other countries, first of all with China, India and Iran: “I believe that during the next round the main elements of the agreement will be approved, because the Russian positions towards Iran and China will be clear, the Ukrainian situation will be clear, and the Americans, considering those geopolitical factors, will be able to make a decision on signing a big agreement with Iran.”