Eight Principles of Iran’s Foreign Policy Towards the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

The Iranian governments have not announced any specific strategy or official document on foreign policy towards Central Asia and the Caucasus, particularly about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, principles of Iran’s foreign policy towards the conflict can be understood via analysis of the ...

Turkey’s new reasons for its unprecedented political and military support for the Republic of Azerbaijan

Vali Kaleji, Senior Researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies and member of IRAS Institute academic council   When the former presidents of Turkey and Armenia, Abdullah Gül and Serge Sargysan, sat down to watch the match between their two national football teams in Bursa Stadium in ...

Expanding Armenia - Israel Relations: Implications for Iran’s Foreign Policy in the South Caucasus

By Vali Kaleji: The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst: Close bilateral ties between Iran and Armenia have been overshadowed by sudden expansion of Yerevan-Tel Aviv links. Tehran views Israel as a "third factor" playing a negative role in Iranian relations with its neighbors including Armenia,...

An article by Mehdi Sanaei

World Order in Post-Coronavirus Era

"Despite the suffering it has brought to humanity, world order is not so terrible that a new building could be built on its ruins, writes Mehdi Sanaei, senior lecturer of the Tehran University’s Department of International Relations, Head of the Centre for Iranian and Eurasian Studies ...

Article by Yuri Kofner

A Win-Win Situation: EAEU Signs Free Trade Deals with Serbia and Iran

Serbia’s decision to conclude a free trade zone agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union was bad news for the European Commission, which had warned Serbia over making that decision several times. There are several reasons for Europe’s grudge. And given that Serbia accounts for less than ...

Any possible policy change in British-Russian relations?

On Dec. 12 Britons elected a new parliament with the Conservative Party securing the majority in a landslide election victory and Boris Johnson re-elected as Prime Minister. Clearly, any new government faces two options regarding its domestic and foreign policies: preserving them or changing them. This ...

Orbeli Center

Political and economic significance of Iran’s cooperation with EEU

The nuclear deal signed between Iran and the “5+1 Group” entered into force after a few months of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) agreement. This opened a wide range of opportunities for economic cooperation with Iran and the West.

Hamidreza Azizi

For Iran, the Latest Sochi Summit Was Not Just About Syria

On Feb. 14, the presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey held a summit in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi to discuss the latest developments in Syria and coordinate their activities in the war-torn country. The summit — the fourth of its kind within the framework of the Astana Peace ...

Hamidreza Azizi

Iran and the Eurasian Transport Initiatives: Short-term Challenges, Long-term Opportunities

Introduction As a country with rich energy resources, Iran has, in its contemporary history, always been dependent on oil and gas revenues for economic growth and development. Although the availability of energy resources is basically considered a blessing for any country, which can provide the ...

Ramin Nadimi

Russia's New Efforts to Gain Influence in Africa

Since a few years ago, Russia has been launching a great effort to bolster its standing in Africa and it seems that Moscow has had some achievements in this regard, especially in the northern and central parts of that continent and the Horn of Africa. The Russian Federation is apparently trying to ...

Alireza Nouri

Iran, Russia Remain Skeptical About US Exit from Syria, Afghanistan

In the political sphere, Iran and Russia have interpreted the announced US withdrawal from Syria — be it tactical or strategic — as an American failure and an indication that their own policies have succeeded.   In Iran, the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps,...

Mehdi Sanaei & Jahangir Karami

Iran and Economic Cooperation: From Atlantic to Pacific

Introduction Since 1960s, regionalism has gradually turned to a critical and prevailing approach in the international studies and since then, regional integration institutions have been expanded and their effectiveness has helped their ongoing expansion and enlargement. Since 1990s, globalization,...

Mahmoud Shoori

Between Iran and Saudi Arabia; Russia’s Tough Path for Neutrality

In October 2015, Russia’s direct military intervention in the Syrian crisis faced the balance of power in the Middle East with fundamental changes. While the Government of Assad was in a fragile condition due to facing multilateral pressures from diverse forces, from Daesh to Saudi-Turkish-Qatar-...

Hossein Ajorlou

Russia and Iran-Israel Disputes in Syria

During the last few months, there have been various reports about the role played by Russia in Syria, especially in relation to disputes between Iran and the Zionist regime. These reports gave birth to analyses, which were at times contradictory. The question is “what factors and variables affect ...

Ehsan Sadeqi

China’s Active Diplomacy in the Persian Gulf and its Effect on Iran's National Interests

Before Xi Jinping became president of China in 2012, the country’s strategy toward the Persian Gulf region was generally a strategy based on China’s considerable need to energy resources, given the fact that China was considered a developing country. Therefore, there was a generally one-...

Hamidreza Azizi

Tehran Summit and the Future of the Iranian-Turkish-Russian Triangle

On September 7, Tehran, hosted the latest round of talks between the Iranian, Russian and Turkish presidents within the framework of the “Astana Peace Process” regarding Syria. As it was the case in their previous meetings, all of the three heads of states reaffirmed their joint commitment ...

Çağdaş Duman

Ethnic Problems in Georgia and Russia

In the Caucasus geography, so many ethnical factors have been living through the centuries. Georgia is a small Caucasian mosaic as demographic. These ethnical differences make Georgia politics weak. After the collapse of the Soviets, Russia Federation has attempted to fill the authority gap appearing ...

Hamed Kazemzadeh

JCPOA and Iran-Azerbaijan Economic Ties

Introduction Azerbaijan plays a central and decisive role in Iran’s regional policies in the Caucasus, and relations are shaped by a range of different factors including geographical and geopolitical proximity, ethnic and religious commonalities, economic ties, Azeri-speaking communities in ...

Andrey Kortunov

Russia and Iran; Tactical Union or Strategic Partnership?

The term “strategic partnership” is very popular in Moscow. Over the years, it has been used to describe Russia’s relations with various countries, including the United States, China, Belarus and Chile, and even supranational associations (the European Union, for example). These ...

Yulia Sveshnikova

Iran and Russia in JCPOA Saga

For Iran and Russia, several points are defining in their bilateral interactions:   1. History of bilateral ties in pre- and after-revolution period;   2. History of the Iran nuclear profile for the past 10 years (more a pretext for exerting pressure on Iran, the “enfant terrible”...