The war in Iran, and especially the quick decapitation of the country’s leadership structure, has been a swift, remarkable display of American power and Israeli determination. But there is one other fact it has proven: an alliance with Moscow counts for little when a regime faces its greatest threat.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Just a year ago, Iranian and Kremlin officials inked a “comprehensive strategic partnership agreement,” cementing the deepening ties between the two regimes. It wasn’t quite the mutual defense pact that Russia had previously signed with North Korea. But it formalized closer defense cooperation between Tehran and Moscow and was the capstone of a years-long courtship in which Iran supplied billions of dollars’ worth of arms for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, Iran’s role in Russia’s drone and missile supply had become so pronounced that, as one expert on Russian-Iranian relations said, “Russia is reliant on Iran for its war” in Ukraine.
That may have been an overstatement, but only slightly. Along with a few select other countries, such as Belarus and North Korea, Iran was a primary bulwark of Russia’s neo-imperialist crusade in Ukraine.
