Iran-Russia agreement under microscope
By Gholamreza Mansouri
Political science researcher
Iran-Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement was signed just a few days before Donald Trump took office for the second time in the US. Before Trump’s arrival, there were two main proposals for solving Iran’s problems on the international scene. The first proposal, which gained momentum as a result of the victory of Masoud Pezeshkian in the latest presidential election held six months ago, suggests that the country should turn to the West.
Pezeshkian’s main supporter was the reformist left wing in the Iranian political sphere. Championing de-escalation with major powers like the US and the EU, reformists believe that Iran should try to normalize its position in the world and be genuinely absorbed in the global system and organizations.
Since this formula has been tried and tested before on the global stage, the adherents to the revolutionary ideology oppose it as a deviance from the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979. The Iranian conservatives, who are quite adamant about battling global imperialism and capitalism under the leadership of the US, believe that resistance against the world’s exploiter forces, particularly “the Great Satan,” is the only way Iran can triumph. They claim that Iran’s strategic position provides it the advantages that we should use to get concessions and further our national interest, instead of begging America and the West for investment and a thaw in relations. These two main ideas have been competing in the country’s political sphere for more than three decades.
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