Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran on Tuesday in his first trip outside the former Soviet bloc since his invasion of Ukraine.
Khamenei called for cooperation between the two countries, telling Putin that they need to be vigilant against “Western deception,” by whom they’ve both been isolated, Reuters reported, citing Iranian state television.
BIDEN EXECUTIVE ORDER ALLOWS AGENCIES TO SANCTION FOR WRONGFUL DETENTION ABROAD
National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said the meeting indicated Putin’s increased isolation on the global scale as well as Russia’s decreased capabilities and the problems with its defense industrial base nearly five months into the war.
“It shows the degree to which Mr. Putin and Russia are increasingly isolated. Now, they have to turn to Iran for help. Two, it shows the degree to which his own defense industrial base is having a hard time keeping up with his unprovoked war in Ukraine. We already know that in respect to precision-guided munitions and advanced systems, tanks, even aircraft, he’s having trouble, particularly with the microelectronics because of the sanctions and export controls,” he said. “Then, the third thing I think this indicates is the degree to which he has absolutely no intention of stopping the war and sitting down in good faith and negotiated settlement.”
The Iranian supreme leader showed his support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, asserting that the West would’ve started the war if the invasion hadn’t occurred.
“War is a harsh and difficult issue, and Iran is not at all pleased that ordinary people suffer from it, but in the case of Ukraine, if you had not taken the initiative, the other side would have caused the war with its own initiative,” Khamenei told Putin, according to the Guardian.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan informed the public last week that Russia was looking to buy “hundreds” of unmanned aerial vehicles from Iran and, subsequently, that Russian officials have already taken two trips there. Kirby said Tuesday that the administration doesn’t have “any indications that the sale has actually occurred.”
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Putin also met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and then with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss Syria.
The Russian leader praised Erdogan for mediating talks about Ukrainian grain exports, which were halted by the invasion, triggering fears of a global food shortage.
