Russia's Vladimir Putin just suffered a major setback in the Middle East...delivered by no less than Iran's Supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei.
A few days ago, there was a news story out that sent a shock through the foreign policy establishment here in the U.S. and elsewhere, that Russia would now base a squadron of its Tupolev 22M3 heavy bombers and support aircraft in Iran's Nojef airbase. This was, of course, a huge game changer and Russia's Foreign ministry proudly trumpeted the news in world media as a major sign of Russian dominance in the region.
Except it wasn't. The whole thing blew up in the Russian's faces, and in a particularly humiliating way.
The deal was arranged by Iran's President Rouhani, who made the mistake of forgetting his place. He summoned the national supreme military council and, without consulting with Khamenei, simply informed them of his decision to make the Nojeh air base available to the Russian air force.
Aside from being angered that Rouhani made this decision without getting an OK from him, Khamenei was reportedly upset that the Russians showed every intent of making the base their permanent turf complete with sophisticate S-300 and S-400 defense systems to protect it. The last thing Khamenei and the ayatollahs want is a base deep in Iran controlled by a foreign country.
Khamenei orchestrated major disapproval from the Majlis, Iran's version of a parliament that actually does the bidding of the Ayatollah Khamenei and his Council of Guardians. It was more than enough to kill the deal and force the Russians out bag and baggage after just three sorties into Syria.
So the Iranian defense ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi announced in a press conference August 22nd that the Russian mission is over for now, that it was always only a temporary use base on a Russian request.
And if that wasn't enough of a slap, Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan insulted the Russians openly for “showing off” over the air base in an “ungentlemanly manner” and a "betrayal of trust."
"We have not given any military base to the Russians and they are not here to stay."
But wait, there's more.
The Russians make a fair amount of badly needed cash selling weaponry to other countries,including Iran. The Ayatollah Khamenei wasn't finished with them yet. He forced President Rouhani to make amends and show who really runs Iran by forcing Rouhani to be photographed posing with an Iranian-made Bavar-373 missile defense system and to tell the press that with this new, home manufactured system, Iran won't need to purchase any more expensive Russian S-300s, "because the Bavar-373 is just as good."
The Ayatollah was not just telling the Russians that Iran wouldn't be buying any more of what they had to sell, but that Iran was going to be further hitting them in the wallet by putting out a competing, less expensive alternative to potential customers.
While I felt I understood why he was doing it, I've written before that Vladimir Putin was making a huge mistake making common cause with Iran. It's the same mistake Stalin made with Hitler,supplying him with oil and other raw materials literally until the day Hitler's armies attacked him.
What Khamenei was reminding Putin that 'You're a useful infidel at present, but you're still an infidel.'
It's as simple as that.
3 comments:
This is very interesting. You state that Stalin was providing oil and other raw materials to Nazi Germany up until the time that Nazi Germany invaded Russia. The standard history on this that we are taught states that Russia and Germany had a "non aggression pact" or something like this which Hitler and Nazi Germany violated thus earning Nazi Germany the utter contempt it so richly deserved.
A non aggression agreement is a far different matter than actively assisting someone. If I'm understanding you correctly, this means that the Soviet Union was actively assisting Nazi Germany in it's invasion of western European nations like Great Britain before it was invaded then it switched sides. Can you provide the documentation for this?
This is important because the US is routinely vilified for its assistance for Nazi Germany prior to WWII usually by those who make common cause with Russia and Vladimir Putin and any US assistance to Nazi Germany was never official policy of the United States government but mostly business personnel trying to make money dealing with Hitler. Of course such is contemptible but pales in comparison to active assistance that is official government policy. It would appear that Russia has never had to answer for any of this. Again, documentation on this would be very interesting if you are willing to provide it.
Poster,
I'm not sure what 'standard history ' you're talking about but it is quite well known that the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement included economic provisions as well...and a secret protocol that allowed Stalin a juicy slice of Poland and a free hand to invade the Baltic states and make them a part of the Soviet Empire.
The economic agreements made sense from Stalin's point of view as well
as Hitler's. Hitler needed oil and other raw materials badly for the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe's war effort and Stalin needed a market to sell these things at a good price, which Germany was willing to pay. And yes, Stalin shipped war materials to Hitler literally until June of 1941 when Hitler attacked him in a total surprise attack that caught the Soviets completely off guard.
There are literally tons of sources on this, but two well known ones I can think of offhand are Churchill's six volume history of World War II and William L. Shirer's 'Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi%E2%80%93Soviet_economic_relations_(1934%E2%80%9341)#1939_economic_and_political_deals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_Commercial_Agreement_(1940)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_Commercial_Agreement_(1940)
I find any conflating of Stalin and Putin to be very difficult to justify.
Stalin was a mass murderer who actually killed more people than Hitler did, although some of the U.S. press did a nice job of covering that up.The NY Times still has the Pulitzer prize their reporter Walter Duranty got for his laudatory reporting on the Soviet Union that never mentioned the purge, the show trials, the Terror or the Holodomor, the Ukrainian genocide of 1932-33.
Putin, on the other hand, has never done anything remotely like that and is one of the few world leaders actually fighting jihad. The current difficulties with Russia can pretty much be laid at the feet of the Obama Regime.
Thank you for the informatikn and the reply to my post. I will review the links you provided and get back with you if I have any questions.
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