Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Jan. 31, 2019 – While the Iranian regime accelerates on the slippery slope of total social, economic, and political bankruptcy, new doors are closed shut in its face every day.
Back in February, 2018, in an attempt to outmaneuver the potential of a coming isolation, Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced the policy of “embracing the East,” hoping to find a fast-lane between the West and the East.
"In foreign policy, preferring the East over the West, preferring the neighbor over remote preference, and preferring nations and countries with whom we share similarities over others, is one of our priorities today," Khamenei said in February last year in Eastern Azerbaijan province.
Following Khamenei's statements, the Iranian regime's rank and file—who were already pessimistic about the regime's prospects especially in the wake of Dec 2017–Jan 2018 uprisings and a new U.S. administration which, unlike its predecessor, had no love lost for the Iranian mullahs—started to cry Eureka!
"According to [Khamenei's] statements, one of the important paths for foreign exchange is the East over West preference," wrote Fars news agency, close to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in May 2018.
"Currently, the political convergence of Iran and Russians has increased Russia's desire for economic convergence between these two countries," Fars continues.
Fars then attacks Rouhani's faction for supporting the JCPOA and counting on Europe's support without tangible guarantees and writes: "The West oriented movement in the country while prettifying Europe, supports the continuation of JCPOA with Europe even without Europe providing necessary guarantees. And on the other hand, [the same movement] spreads fake news about Russia's positions about Iran, in order to destroy one of the alternative paths to exchange with the West (i.e. developing relations with the East)."
But after a few months, it turned out that Russia has different interests in Syria.
In an interview with CNN, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Rybakov said that Israel's security is "among the top priorities" of Russia and the Iranian government is not Russia's ally in Syria.
He further said that despite the Islamic Republic's support for peace negotiations in Syria, Moscow and Tehran don't have a united interpretation about the developments in Syria.
Rybakov's statements came shortly after the Israeli air force conducted heavy attacks against military sites in Syria belonging to Iranian terrorist Quds Force.
According to a January 24 article in Asr-e Iran website, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, chair of Iran parliament's national security and foreign relations committee, criticized Russia for not using its S-300 anti-air missiles during Israel's latest air-attack against the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Syria and said: "The Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile system stationed in Syria has been deactivated during the Zionist's [Islamic Republic's parlance for Israel] attack against this country [Syria]. There is serious criticism against Russia for having deactivated their S-300 surface-to-air missile system during the attacks by the Zionist regime. It appears that there has been sort of a coordination between the Zionist regime's attacks and the Russian anti-air system that is stationed in Syria."
It appears that Ali Khamenei's Policy of embracing the East is nothing more than wishful thinking and the means to boost the morale of a regime whose change is long overdue.
