By Vestnik Kavkaza
The problem of falling oil prices in the world has signs of a secret deal, according to the head of the Iranian parliament, Ali Laridjani, who is visiting Iraq at the moment. Meanwhile, during a meeting in Moscow between a Rosselkhoznadzor delegation and the First Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Iran, Hassan Sinaki, the necessity was stated of shifting to settling transactions in the food trade sphere in national currencies. However, experts are not so optimistic about the prospects of Russian-Iranian relations. Moreover, observers have no common view on the results of the talks on the Iranian nuclear programme between the 5+1 Group and Tehran.
Rahab Safarov, the Director General of the Center for Studying Modern Iran, thinks that the development of the relations between Moscow and Tehran “makes Iran intensify cooperation with the West. Almost all initiatives fail in the sphere of trade economic cooperation between Russian and Iran. Yes, there is the intention to cooperate with Iran, a desire to diversify the relations; at the same time business circles’ cooperation and trade turnover are decreasing. This puts pressure on Iran, and the liberal part of the Iranian community encourages the authorities of the country to intensify cooperation with the Western countries.”
According to Safarov, “the Iranian authorities provide a smart, transparent policy” toward its nuclear programme. “Optimization of Iranian-American relation will enable them to influence certain political decisions. But the most important thing is that America and the West want to use Iranian potential against the interests, especially the energy interests, of Russia. Any estrangement between Russia and Iran is beneficial for the West, while any Russian-Iranian rapprochement threatens the interests of the Western countries and their partners in the region.”
A leading researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, Vladimir Kozin, “does not have great optimism that the forthcoming negotiations on the nuclear program of Iran will be successful in 2015.” The expert thinks there are two reasons for this. First of all this is excessive pressure on Iran by the nuclear trinity (US, UK and France), plus non-nuclear Germany.
The second point is that Iran is exposed to very strong psychological, economic, political, military and other forms of pressure. “This way is not the best way to convince it to take constructive solutions, quite the opposite. Iran cannot be driven into a corner like a poor wet little mouse. Iran is neither poor, nor wet, nor a mouse. This is a serious, responsible state. There should be no excessive pressure put on the Islamic Republic of Iran on this particular issue.”
