MESOP MIDEAST NEWS: TURKEYS GROWING AMBITIONS ! – Putin Visits Tehran for Talks With Iranian, Turkish Leaders  (EXPERTS & SOURCES)
19-7-22 The leaders of Iran, Russia, and Turkey are set to discuss (Bloomberg) the wars in Syria and Ukraine during a rare trip abroad by Russian President Vladimir Putin and plan to release a joint statement on Syria. In recent weeks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to launch a new offensive against Kurdish fighters in Syria, a move that Iran and Russia are seeking to prevent. Erdogan has also been trying to broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine that would allow grain shipments to leave Ukrainian ports.

Before the summit, Iran and Russian energy firm Gazprom signed a deal (Reuters) in which Gazprom agreed to help Iran develop oil and gas fields and complete export pipelines. Separately, Reuters reported yesterday that Gazprom told European buyers it cannot guarantee scheduled deliveries to them due to “extraordinary” circumstances. The report raises concerns that Gazprom could reduce its gas flow to Europe when an ongoing maintenance period ends on Thursday.

 

Analysis

 

“The Kremlin is eager to show the world—and its own people—that it still has friends, despite the global opprobrium over the war in Ukraine. That is giving Iran a new opportunity to stimulate its sanctions-starved economy, with Russian businesses that had been focused on trade with the West now racing to find new markets and suppliers,” the New York Times’ Anton Troianovski and Farnaz Fassihi write.

“At odds with Turkey since 2011 over its desire to overthrow the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its support for an array of armed opposition factions, Iran has been increasingly vocal of late in opposing a potential new Turkish military operation,” the German Institute for International and Security Affairs’ Hamidreza Azizi writes for the Middle East Institute.

 

This Backgrounder looks at Turkey’s growing foreign policy ambitions.