Russia and Iran are firming up relations in a 'trusting' atmosphere, Russia's foreign ministry said on Tuesday after its chief, Sergei Lavrov, met Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran.
"In a traditionally trusting atmosphere, current aspects of the bilateral agenda were substantively discussed with an emphasis on further building up the entire complex of multifaceted Russian-Iranian partnership," the foreign ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Lavrov, who went to Tehran shortly after an Asia trip to China and North Korea, discussed energy and logistics projects with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
As has been the Russian norm, few details of the talks, which took place amid the rising tensions in the Middle East, have been disclosed.
Lavrov also participated in regional talks hosted by Iran, aiming to bring peace to the South Caucasus region after Azerbaijani forces last month recaptured the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh and forced thousands of ethnic Armenians to flee.
Since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has sought to firm up ties with countries traditionally considered Western aligned, accusing "the collective West" of trying to break up Russia.
Ukraine has urged Tehran to stop supplying deadly drones to Russia, which Kyiv says have played a major role in Moscow's attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Iran initially denied supplying the Shahed kamikaze drones to Russia but later said it had provided a small number before Moscow launched the war.
The United States has said that it has been concerned by the "burgeoning defense partnership" between Iran and Russia, which poses risks not only to Ukraine but also to Iran's neighbors.
Reuters Report
Russian and Turkish foreign ministers also attended the second 3+3 regional platform summit, dubbed Time for Peace, Cooperation, and Progress in the South Caucasus. The first 3+3 meeting was held in Moscow in December 2021 at the level of deputy foreign ministers. Georgia was no present either of the events.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov met for the first time since Azerbaijan's lightning offensive to recapture the disputed region, which prompted the exodus of most of the region's 120,000 ethnic Armenians. Yerevan has accused Baku of ethnic cleansing, while Azerbaijan said the Armenians left of their own accord and were welcome to return. Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan have fought two wars in the past three decades and have so far failed to seal a peace deal despite long-running efforts by the United States, EU and Russia.
"A historic opportunity is available to all countries in the region. The war in South Caucasus has ended, and it is time for peace and cooperation," Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said. He added, "The presence of outsiders in the region will not only solve any problems but will also complicate the situation further," he added, in an implicit reference to o the United States and the European Union, whose involvement in the search for a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan has particularly irks Russia.
Iran has close ties with Armenia, which has a more than a three-decade old conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno -Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave inside Baku's international borders. However, Yerevan is now seeking wider international support and is distancing itself from Moscow, perhaps because Russia is engrossed in its invasion of Ukraine. During the past months, several Iranian military commanders and politicians warned Azerbaijan not to attack Armenia and avoid closing Iran's gateway to Europe via a narrow strip of land connecting Iran via Armenia to Russia and Europe. Iran has also long warned Azerbaijan about its close military relations with Israel, which is the Baku’s main arms supplier.
Tehran's inaction in the face of Azerbaijan's offensive was quite embarrassing for the regime and its military commanders considering months of bragging on IRGC media outlets and social media channels about Iran's swift reaction in case Azerbaijan attacked Karabakh.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, who met with the foreign ministers in separate meetings, said during talks with Armenia's foreign minister, "Given its strong and influential position, Iran is ready to assist in resolving the existing disputes between Azerbaijan and Armenia."
Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in a statement posted on the X social media platform, said Ankara welcomed Monday's talks in Tehran and hoped they would "give impetus to normalization and peace processes".
The meeting took place against the backdrop of rising tensions in the Middle East, following the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel. Hamas Killed about 1,400 Israelis and took over 220 as hostages. In the retaliatory attacks, over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed while a ground offensive of Gaza seems imminent.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Tehran that unilateral moves to resolve the conflict in the Middle East can only worsen the situation and the United States has not offered any new ideas on tackling the crisis. "The more we have such 'initiatives" from any one state, the greater in general will be the risks, the danger of the conflict growing," he said.
Urging Immediate steps to arrange a ceasefire, resolve humanitarian issues and find a mechanism to work for peace based on the "two state" principle, Lavrov said the United States had halted the work of the Middle East "quartet" and "for now no other body exists that would be acceptable for all. If (US Secretary of State) Antony Blinken has some sort of bright ideas for this, we are unaware of them." The Diplomatic Quartet, comprised of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia, was established in early 2000s to mediate the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
The roundup of worshippers included 13 children and is part of a weekly system of oppression of the country's Sunni minority who see constant threats of arrest and even state sponsored violence.
The incident happened following last week's Friday prayer in commemoration of the lives lost last year in the Bloody Friday tragedy where state security murdered close to 100 civilians, including women and children.
"After Friday prayers, people should return to their homes with silence and remembrance of the Almighty ... but the extensive presence of forces on the streets surrounding the mosque and prayer ground further agitates the people," he said.
"When the youth see that the authorities have arrived in such numbers, it stirs up emotions ... but if these authorities were not present, there would be no problem."
Bloody Friday initially began with protesting worshippers gathering after a police commander sexually assaulted a young Baluch girl a few weeks earlier and resulted in one of the most bloody days of the uprising which followed the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini.
At that time, nationwide anti-regime protests were also taking place, following the death of Mahsa Amini in hijab police custody in mid-September 2022. The protests in Zahedan were seen by the regime as another serious challenge and they acted more brazenly than in Shiite cities, opening direct fire at protesters.
Abdolhamid also stressed that after more than a year, "no proper steps have been taken to heal the pains" of the families of the victims of Bloody Friday. "The greatest pain and distress of the people, whose family members were martyred on that fateful day in Zahedan on the 8th of Mehr, 1401, is that, unfortunately, no proper attention has been given to this matter, and no significant steps have been taken to address their suffering."
Since then, this Sunni-majority city has been a scene of week-round protests, which follow the sermons delivered by their Friday prayer leader, Mowlavi Abdolhamid.
The Sunni cleric stated that worshippers should return home "in silence and remembrance of God after Friday prayer"; however, the presence of security forces around the mosque is likely to exacerbate the situation and "provoke" people.
Videos posted on social media by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) show special guard forces surrounding the Makki Mosque and significant force used when arresting citizens in the city.
A number of activists and community leaders have expressed their support for the people of Zahedan, including Iran's exiled prince, Reza Pahlavi. He reacted to the incident Friday by blaming the regime for responding to "peaceful chants with a violent crackdown— including against children."
"The regime occupying our country is the godfather of terrorism in the Middle East," he wrote on X. "No Iranian, Israeli, or Arab will be safe as long as this criminal regime is in power. Lasting peace in the Middle East can come sooner than expected if the world takes real action to help the Iranian people overthrow this terrorist empire."
Moreover, Fazl ul-Rahman Kouhi, the Friday prayer Imam of Pashamag village in Sarbaz County, Sistan and Baluchestan, and a number of his companions were arrested by the security forces on Sunday after meeting Abdolhamid in Zahedan.
Kouhi, who was recently released after a long period of imprisonment, had said before his arrest in response to Friday's crackdown on protesters that "the attack of military forces on the worshipers in Zahedan is no less oppressive than the actions of Israel against the people of Palestine."
Friday protests in Zahedan were documented on social media, with slogans expressing opposition to Iran's current policy of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. Participants chanted "Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, My Life for Iran" and "From Zahedan to Gaza, the Whole World Shakes."
Abdolhamid, renowned for his outspoken views, has expressed his criticism of Hamas' declaration of war against Israel on October 7. "We will not blindly support a Muslim who goes too far and ignores international law and attacks women and kills children," he said, going against the regime's rhetoric that Hamas must continue to crush Israel until it no longer exists.
His sermons were seen as an implicit reaction to Iran's Leader Ali Khamenei's lauding Hamas' "epic" attacks on Israel.
The Khamenei-affiliated Kayhan newspaper attacked Abdolhamid, calling him a "Mossad agent".
