Valdai Club

Iran’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been one of the most important aspects of Iran’s foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, a complex combination of ideology and pragmatism, Vali Kaleji writes.

On October 18, 2023 the UN Security Council’s sanctions on the development and export of Iranian missiles quietly expired, but the European Troika and the United States persisted in their missile embargo against Tehran outside the UN’s purview; this will not prevent the development of Iran's missile programmes, writes Valdai Club expert Vali Kaleji.

In his article, Dr. Vali Kaleji, a Tehran-based expert on Central Asia and Caucasian Studies, postulates that the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that was held between 17 and 18 October 2023 in Beijing, can have important results on transportation and transit in Eurasia. On the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), this mega project has been significantly affected by the conflict in Ukraine and the Western sanctions against Russia.

The banking and financial relations between Iran and Russia have developed significantly in recent years under the influence of several factors, which is unprecedented in the history of relations between the two countries, Vali Kaleji writes.

The rapid and significant horizontal and vertical expansion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has had a negative impact on the coherence, coordination, efficiency and especially the executive guarantee of the organisation's policies and decisions, writes Vali Kaleji.

The Chabahar Port Transit Project, is of great importance in the “International North–South Transport Corridor” (INSTC), because it is the only Iranian port with direct access to the Indian Ocean., writes Valdai Club expert Vali Kaleji.

The 164 km Rasht-Astara railway route in Iran’s Gilan Province is of great importance in the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC), because it is the only remaining rail part of this corridor, writes Valdai Club expert Vali Kaleji.

During the past year, very important and positive developments have taken place in the cooperation between the two countries in the Caspian Sea, which needs to be strengthened and developed, writes Valdai Club expert Vali Kaleji.

In his article, Dr. Vali Kaleji, a Tehran-based expert on Central Asia and Caucasian Studies, believes that informing Tehran of the results of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border commission, creating a complementary agreement to clarify Article 9 of the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement for clarifying Zangezur corridor and continuing the meeting of 3 + 3 format can reduce Iran’s concerns about the border tensions between Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan and also help peace and stability in the South Caucasus.

This latest round in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has brought Russia’s role in a settlement into focus and revealed the additional risks, not from Western pressure, which has become traditional, but from the growing ambitions of various regional players and non-government actors.