IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation on Thursday underlined the need to confront the unilateral approaches practiced by the U.S. and called for the expansion of relations between Tehran and Moscow in all fields.

The presidents of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation have discussed a broad range of issues in a phone conversation.

During the Thursday phone call, President Rouhani emphasized the development of balanced cooperation with Moscow at all political, economic, scientific and cultural levels.

President Rouhani called for further consultations and talks between the two countries’ officials, and expressed satisfaction with the implementation of the agreements.

Referring to the holding of a virtual summit of the leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey with the aim of establishing peace and stability in Syria, President Rouhani stressed the need for continued cooperation between the three countries within the framework of the Astana process to achieve this goal, especially in humanitarian issues.

He also stressed the importance of maintaining and fully implementing the JCPOA as an international commitment, and underlined the need for countering unilateralism and the recent U.S. actions and efforts to prevent the expiration of arms embargo against Iran.

President Rouhani also referred to the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Iran and other countries, and stressed the need for cooperation between the two countries and the exchange of experiences in the fight against coronavirus.

Russian President Putin, in turn, said, “As in the past five years, we continue to support this international document (the JCPOA) and insist on its implementation and preservation.

He also stressed the significance of development of relations with Iran in all fields and added, “We welcome cooperation with Iran in the field of coronavirus and exchange of experiences”.

The Russian president also stressed the continuation of his country’s support for Iran’s position in international communities.

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According To Iran News, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif welcomed a proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin to create a green corridor for the global battle with the coronavirus pandemic.

“In order to contain the situation of coronavirus, different countries have closed their geographical borders, but opened them to provide assistance,” Zarif said in a tweet on Wednesday, posted in the Russian language.

“(US President) Donald Trump continues to resist the international demand for lifting the sanctions on Iran in order to counter the coronavirus infection. Coronavirus may spread to the neighboring countries,” he added.

“Iran welcomes the Russian idea of ‘creating a green corridor instead of an economic war and sanctions’,” Zarif emphasized.

Last week, Putin called for a common plan to support the global economy. Speaking via teleconference to the leaders of the G-20 group of nations, the Russian president urged the creation of ‘green corridors’ to transport essential goods and technologies without sanctions as the world continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

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According To Iran News, The West’s Russophobic obsession should have abated amid the coronavirus pandemic but baseless accusations continue, Russia’s presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Claims that Russia has been feeding disinformation campaign on the coronavirus pandemic are unfounded, Peskov said, Sputnik reported.

Earlier, Reuters cited a European Union document it had seen, that Russian media had been allegedly feeding a “significant disinformation campaign” against the West to spread panic over the new coronavirus pandemic and sow distrust in governments’ measures to fight the deadly virus.

“The overarching aim of Kremlin disinformation is to aggravate the public health crisis in Western countries … In line with the Kremlin’s broader strategy of attempting to subvert European societies,” the document, dated March 16, said, as quoted by Reuters.

Peskov said that he could have said something more definitive about these claims if the name of at least one media outlet had been mentioned in the document.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised European countries for taking ‘reasonable’ emergency measures aimed at stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus and expressed hope that this response will be efficient.

Meanwhile, in Russia, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has reached 147, with thirty-three new cases registered in the past 24 hours.

Globally, the new coronavirus has been reported in more than 150 countries, claiming the lives of over 8,000 people and infecting more than 201,000.

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The 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament, voted in favor of the changes of term long in third and final reading by 383 votes. Nobody voted against, but 43 lawmakers abstained. Twenty four lawmakers were absent.

Putin, 67, who has dominated the Russian political landscape for two decades as either president or prime minister, opened the door to the constitutional changes a day earlier, making an impromptu appearance in parliament.

Putin in January unveiled a major shake-up of Russian politics and a constitutional overhaul but is currently required by the constitution to step down in 2024 when his second sequential and fourth presidential term ends.

But, addressing the State Duma on Tuesday, he gave his qualified blessing to the proposed change to the constitution.

If the constitutional court gives its blessing to the amendment and it is backed in a nationwide vote in April, Putin could serve another two back-to-back six-year terms.

Were he to do that, and his health and electoral fortunes allowed, he could stay in office until 2036, at which point he would be 83.

Putin has not spelled out what his plans for the future are after 2024 but has said he does not favor the Soviet-era practice of having leaders for life who die in office.

The changes backed by the State Duma on Wednesday will now be reviewed by other parts of the Russian legislative branch, including Russia’s upper house of parliament later on Wednesday.

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According To Iran News, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have announced a military ceasefire in Idlib, after a six-hour meeting in Moscow on Thursday.

The announcement that took effect from midnight on Friday will end weeks of heavy fighting that sparked a humanitarian disaster and raised fears of their armies clashing, MoscowTimes reported.

The agreement will also create a security corridor along the key M4 highway in northern Syria, where Turkish and Russian forces will launch joint patrols from March 15.

The deal aims to put a stop to intense fighting in Idlib, the northwestern province of Syria where Ankara is battling Moscow-backed government forces.

Nearly a million of civilians have fled their homes due to the violence.

Putin told a joint press conference after the talks that the agreement would “serve as a good basis for ending fighting” in Idlib and for “stopping the suffering of the civilian population”.

“The object is to avoid the humanitarian crisis getting worse,” Erdogan said, though he added that Turkey reserved the right to “retaliate with all its strength against any attack” by Damascus.

The situation in Idlib, the last militant stronghold in Syria’s nine-year civil war, had become critical as Ankara for the first time launched a direct offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

Turkey has long backed certain militant groups against Assad forces but its priority now is to stop an influx of refugees among those fleeing an offensive the Syrian government has been pressing on terror cells in Idlib since December.

Ankara has demanded the European Union support its actions in Syria and last week opened its border with Greece to migrants — a move decried by some in the bloc as “blackmail”.

Despite supporting opposing sides in the war, Russia and Turkey have worked to try to resolve the conflict and avoid direct confrontation.

The two countries agreed a deal in the southern Russian city of Sochi in 2018 that created a “de-escalation” zone in Idlib and allowed for the deployment of 12 Turkish observation posts.

In the run-up to Thursday’s talks, the two sides had traded accusations of violating the deal.

Ankara said Russia was not fulfilling part of the agreement that guaranteed no attacks on Idlib and the status quo on the ground.

Moscow in turn said Turkey was breaching the agreement by supporting “illegal armed groups” and accused Turkish forces of mingling with “terrorists” in Idlib.

Turkey officially declared an operation against the Assad government over the weekend, after 34 Turkish soldiers died in an air strike blamed on Damascus.

It has since downed three Syrian warplanes and killed dozens of soldiers and allied fighters, according to monitors. Fighting continued in the province on Thursday.

Erdogan warned Europe on Wednesday that it must support Turkey’s “political and humanitarian solutions in Syria” if it wants to avoid a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis.

Thousands of migrants have massed at the Turkish-Greek border since Erdogan gave them the green light to try to enter Europe, leading to clashes with Greek police.

Turkey hosts roughly 3.6 million refugees from Syria — and hundreds of thousands from elsewhere — and Erdogan’s move has sparked concern in Europe of a renewed influx of migrants.

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According To Iran News, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would be prepared to hold discussions with US President Donald Trump on the future of the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START).

Refusing to prolong the agreement would be a mistake, he told TASS in an interview for the project entitled “20 Questions with Vladimir Putin”.

“I can talk about that with him. I do not mind. I’m well-versed on this issue. I can discuss it with anyone,” Putin said, adding that he was up-to-date on the topic and ready to discuss it with anyone.

“The New START treaty should be extended,” he said.

Asked why the US was reluctant to agree to the treaty’s prolongation, Putin said that it might have been due to the way Washington interpreted security and ways of maintaining it.

Earlier, Putin invited the United States to prolong the agreement without any preconditions. There has been no reply from Washington to this day.

Moscow and Washington signed the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms in 2010. Under its terms, either country must reduce its strategic offensive arms in such a way that at the end of the seventh year following its entry into force and later on their overall amounts should not exceed 700 units of deployed inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and heavy bombers, 1,550 warheads and 800 operational and non-operational missile launchers and strategic bombers.

The treaty was concluded for a period of ten years (until February 5, 2021). It can be replaced by a follow-up agreement before the deadline expires, or prolonged for no more than five years (until 2026) by mutual consent.

Moscow urges Washington to refrain from procrastinating on the treaty’s extension, because in its opinion it is the “gold standard” in the field of disarmament.

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IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

TEHRAN – President Hassan Rouhani, in a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Putin, said that the situation in Syria’s Idlib is worrying and the decisions made under the Astana Process must be operationalized as soon as possible.

Speaking with Russian President Putin, President Rouhani mentioned the recent developments in Idlib and his phone call earlier with the President of Turkey in this regard, saying, “The situation in Idlib is worrying and the decisions made under the Astana Process must be operationalized as soon as possible so that peace and security is returned to the region and terrorism is eradicated.”

Stating that it is not acceptable that a part of Syria is under the control of terrorists, he said, “As it has been stressed repeatedly, the solution to the Syrian issue is merely political and will be resolved only through dialogue and we must not let the situation in Idlib turn into a pretext for America’s interference and misuse of the Syrian issue.”

President Rouhani also voiced Iran’s readiness to host the next summit of Iran, Russia, and Turkey in continuation of the Astana Process, saying: “In the recent years, great actions have been taken in fighting terrorism through the cooperation of Iran, Russia, and Syria, the impacts and results of which must be protected.”

“In the Idlib issue, we are fully ready to reach a political and security solution agreed by all three countries,” he continued.

President Rouhani described the relations between the two countries good and developing in all fields, saying: “We are ready to increase cooperation in all areas of interests to both countries.”

On the recent developments regarding the nuclear issue, the President appreciated Moscow’s stances regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and said: “We will live up to our commitments until the time we enjoy the interests of the agreement, and we hope that this agreement is saved with other parties’ cooperation.”

At the same phone call, the President of Russia expressed sympathy with the Iranian government and people on the lives lost because of coronavirus, and welcomed Iranian President’s suggestion for quick implementation of health protocols, adding, “We are ready to cooperate with Iran for quick implementation of health protocols.”

Vladimir Putin stressed cooperation between Iran and Russia on JCPOA, saying: “The recent summit of experts in Vienna laid the ground for settling this issue, especially with regard to the fact that Tehran has cooperated with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)”.

Russian President also referred to the agreements within the framework of Astana Process for resolving the Syrian issue as a very effective move, saying: “Creating de-escalation zones must not mean not fighting with terrorism.”

Stressing the importance of preserving the territorial integrity of Syria, Putin said: “It is the Syrian government’s right to react for fighting terrorism in its land”.

Welcoming Iran’s readiness to host the next tripartite summit, he said: “The next summit of the three countries in Iran can help achieve a solution”.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held phone conversations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the latest development in Syria’s Idlib.

“The issue of Idlib is very complicated given the community of dangerous terrorists and the protection of the lives of innocent people living in the area, which on the one hand must protect human lives and on the other, the terrorists must be eradicated,” said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday.

Referring to the special importance of the trilateral cooperation of Iran, Turkey and Russia to resolve the Syrian problem in order to strengthen the Astana process, Rouhani noted, “Trilateral cooperation at various levels is of particular importance, and as previously mentioned, Iran is ready to host the next round of this trilateral summit.”

“Certainly, increasing the tension is not in the interest of anyone in the region, and we must resolve the issues through dialogue and should not allow the Astana process to weaken,” he added.

He also suggested holding trilateral summit of Iran, Turkey and Syria to resolve Idlib issue, saying, “We can resolve differences at this meeting, given our agreement on principles such as preserving Syria’s territorial integrity, eradicating terrorists, preserving the lives of innocent people, and quickly resolving the issue of Idlib.”

After his conversation with Turkish President on Saturday evening, Rouhani also held phone talks with Vladimir Putin.

No further details about the talk have been yet revealed by the official website of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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