Bülent Aras ve Fatih Özbay’ın Rusya’nın İran Nükleer silahları siyasetini inceleyen Middle East Policy Dergisi’nin Aralık 2006 sayısında yayınlanan “Dancing with the Wolves: Russia, Iran and the Nuclear Issue,“ isimli makaleleri.
Western countries, led by the United States, helped the Iranian nuclear program and facilitated the export of nuclear technology to Iran under the shah’s regime. After the Islamic revolution in 1979, the U.S. administration withdrew its support for Iran’s nuclear program. The Iran-Iraq War, combined with escalating tension with the United States, paved the way in Iranian security circles to new ideas on obtaining nuclear weapons to defend Iran in a hostile regional and international environment. The early revolutionary political elite in Iran conceived the world order in terms of rivalry among nuclear powers. This perception persists to some extent, despite the counterargument that nuclear weapons are unacceptable in Islamic terms. Whether for peaceful nuclear purposes or for producing nuclear weapons, there was a desperate need for external support to pursue a nuclear program. The most reliable, and for a long time the only, partner has been the Russian Federation. It is hard to find any analysis or statement on the Iranian nuclear issue that does not mention a Russian role.
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| Vladimir Putin | Mahmud Ahmadinejad |
Moscow’s policy has generally been interpreted as a short-term economically oriented policy, a mere response to U.S. hegemonic policies or a search for regional influence. In this article, we argue that Russia has a long-term goal of cooperation with Iran on the nuclear issue. This policy has been shaped in a period of transition from Yeltsin’s chaotic order to Putin’s visible search for greater influence in regional and international politics. Russian policy makers adopted a multi-dimensional approach with a system of checks and balances. Russia aims to satisfy the demands of international society while continuing to cooperate with Iran on the nuclear issue. Russian involvement in the Iranian nuclear issue goes beyond its cooperation with Iran, however, and requires more engagement in the international arena, rather than on a Russian Iranian bilateral level. One component of this approach is to have Iran as a junior partner that provides implicit and indirect support to Russian policy on the nuclear issue by following a policy of coordination with Russian diplomatic maneuvers. One needs to answer a number of questions to prove this claim of Russian involvement in the Iranian nuclear problem. Is there a Russian strategy for backing Iranian nuclear ambitions?..
