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What is going to Russian President Vladimir Putin talk about in Tehran on Tuesday? If the official statements from each nations are to be believed, the supply of Iranian-made (fight) drones to Russia was not on the agenda.
Final week the US mentioned such deliveries had been being ready. Based on Jake Sullivan, US President Joe Biden’s nationwide safety adviser, the Iranian authorities is “making ready to offer Russia with as much as a number of hundred unmanned aerial automobiles,” together with these able to carrying weapons, “on an expedited timeline.”
“No,” mentioned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in response to a reporter’s query. The supply of drones wouldn’t be mentioned, he mentioned. Iranian International Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian lately assured Ukraine that his nation wouldn’t provide Russia with drones. He mentioned US claims had been baseless and aimed toward reaching particular political objectives.
DW’s Kersten Knipp
Nevertheless, the US mentioned once more over the weekend that such plans exist. Based on Sullivan, there are indications {that a} Russian delegation lately visited an airfield in central Iran a minimum of twice for info on the Islamic Republic’s bold drone program and to have a look at weapons-capable drones.
Credibility points
With regard to the opposing claims, nevertheless, Russia and Iran have an issue — there’s little motive to belief both nation’s official statements. Even shortly earlier than the assault on Ukraine, Russia’s highest authorities officers denied any such plans, mendacity in an unprecedented method. The truth that Iran final month eliminated two Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company (IAEA) surveillance cameras from a uranium enrichment facility in a dispute over the nation’s nuclear program signifies a mode that is not robust on belief, additionally as a result of the info saved on the cameras has not been forwarded to the IAEA for the reason that starting of 2021. In that gentle, what the 2 nations declare won’t be mentioned throughout Putin’s go to to Tehran shouldn’t be value a lot.
Enemies of democracy
Iran supplying Russia with drones appears believable for one motive specifically — each intently aligned regimes are fierce opponents of any type of political freedom and the rule of regulation. The thought of residents acquiring info independently from sources they deem reliable is as horrific to them as the concept of residents saying what they assume, particularly in public. The fervency and arbitrariness each states resort to in crackdowns on dissidents and critics is mirrored of their rating within the World Justice Mission’s 2021 Rule of Legislation Index. Russia ranked one hundred and first out of a complete of 139 nations, and Iran was ranked 119th. The 2 nations have comparable rankings in Transparency Worldwide’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, too — Russia was ranked 136th out of 180 nations, Iran ranked one hundred and fiftieth.
Are Iranian Ababil 3 drones about for use in Russia’s battle on Ukraine?
On the worldwide stage, each nations additionally current themselves as enemies of democracy and the rule of regulation decided to do nearly something: In Syria, each assist dictator Bashar al-Assad, whose regime has been liable for lots of of 1000’s of deaths for the reason that 2011 uprisings, with many individuals horribly murdered in state torture prisons. Russia and Iran didn’t hesitate to face by such a regime and struggle its opponents with a vengeance.
Ukraine, Syria — comparable ways
It appears solely seemingly that the talks in Tehran will even contact on drones, together with fight drones. Each states assume alongside the identical strains, which implies combating a coverage of liberalization and the rule of regulation, to ensure the norms of an enlightened society topic solely to the regulation (and to not arbitrariness and paternalism) don’t win the higher hand, neither in Syria nor in Ukraine. As states, Iran and Russia don’t have any tender powers in any respect, nothing that appears even remotely engaging. All that’s left to such states is bare violence to safeguard their rule.
This text was initially written in German.
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