“Iran is ready to engage in swap operations on Russian gas”

The trend of growing trade turnover between Russia and friendly countries has not spared Iran: in the first nine months of 2023 it grew by 30%. And, as he assured in an interview with a Kommersant correspondent, Natalia Portyakova Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Russian Federation Kazem Jalali, both countries are determined to increase this figure in the future. One of the closest opportunities to “go through all the projects that are being implemented between the two countries” is the upcoming 3rd Caspian Economic Forum in Tehran, in which Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will also take part.

— I’ll start with the conflict in the Middle East. In the West, a version has become established that the Hamas attack on Israel was provoked and even orchestrated by Iran in order to thus disrupt normalization between Israel and Arab countries. What could you say in response to such statements?

“You know that the Palestinian problem is not a matter of today or even yesterday. This problem is already 75 years old. And you know that in the West they never wanted to deal with the real root cause of this. They never wanted to look at the root of this problem and always shifted responsibility onto other countries. It seems to me that in fact the West as a whole in its imagination is nurturing and is now spreading precisely such thoughts.

And the root of this problem lies in what Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke about—the lack of justice. And until we restore justice, this situation will continue.

Remember the Islamic revolution in 1979. What, before 1979 there was no conflict between Israel and Arab countries? And then who did they blame for this? It seems to me that these are imaginary constructs that they formulate and develop in their heads. We need to look at the root and radically solve this issue.

— The head of the Russian government, Mikhail Mishustin, will fly to Iran in the near future. At a recent meeting with the First Vice President of Iran, Mohammad Mokhber, he expressed interest in implementing large joint projects with Iran in the fields of energy, industry, agriculture and high technology. Should we expect that as a result of Mr. Mishustin’s upcoming visit, the two countries will reach any specific agreements?

— Yes, His Excellency Mr. Mishustin will take part in the Caspian Economic Forum. And, of course, the visit of the Russian Prime Minister to Iran is important. During the visit, we will deal primarily with economic issues and will try to develop and expand our relations in the future.

The largest initiative is the infrastructure project of the North-South International Transport Corridor (ITC), which our senior officials always place great emphasis on.

All five Caspian states are involved in this project. You know that the North-South ITC has an eastern branch, which involves countries such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Russia, that is, the four Caspian states. There is also a trans-Caspian branch, in which we use a multimodal transport route, that is, we use both the railway and the road, as well as the sea component between Iran and Russia. And there is a western branch, which is used by Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. Thus, it can be summarized that the five Caspian states are located exactly on the path of the North-South ITC.

We also have other economic projects, and I think the Caspian Economic Forum will be a very good opportunity for Mr. Mishustin and Mr. Mokhber to go through all the projects that are being implemented between our countries.

— In recent months, many experts have pointed to the prospects of creating energy corridors in Iran in the form of a railway and pipeline system for the transit of Russian hydrocarbons to India, countries in Africa and the Middle East. Are these just good wishes for now or are the parties really seriously working on this?

— As for energy, I want to say that our officials are having a lot of conversations on this topic. And Iran said from the very beginning that it was ready to engage in swap operations on Russian gas. And we said that we are ready to receive Russian gas through Turkmenistan, and provide the same volume to Russia – to Russian companies themselves or to clients of Russian companies – in the south, in the Persian Gulf.

We are ready to carry out and conduct such swap operations. Along the way, naturally, there are some technical problems that Russia needs to solve.

For a long time, gas has been flowing towards Russia from the territory of Turkmenistan. Now we need to supply this gas back there via the reverse route. If Russia is able to implement this project, we are ready to conduct similar swap operations.

Our gas transportation system is very extensive: it runs across the entire territory from the border with Turkmenistan – towards the south, and to the east, and to the west.

As for oil swap operations, Iran is completely ready in this regard, and we are also ready to address this issue.

— Against the background of the severance of Russia’s economic ties with the West, Russian trade with friendly countries has increased very sharply over the past year and a half. A classic success story is our trade turnover with India, which grew 2.5 times over the year. Has this positive trend also affected Russian-Iranian trade?

— Yes, we are also determined to increase our trade turnover, and in the last two or three years it has been growing all the time. Due to a number of reasons, including sanctions restrictions, we (both sides – both Iranian and Russian) cannot yet make accurate information public, but what can be said is a 30 percent increase in trade turnover between the two countries in January —August 2023 compared to the same period last year.

This year, 2023, exports from Iran to Russia have increased. In Russia we purchase grain, oil, and wood. But the volume of exports from Russia has decreased slightly this year. The reason is that the volume of wheat production in Iran itself has increased.

The main thing is that both countries are making efforts to remove obstacles to the development of our bilateral trade.

This mainly concerns issues such as transit, bank transfers, customs aspects and logistics. Here are the four main obstacles. And we must make efforts to eliminate them.

— About a year ago, the analytical center at the Tehran Chamber of Commerce and Industry released a rather voluminous report on the prospects and problems in Russian-Iranian trade relations. And there was this passage: “If relations between Iran and Russia strengthen, then Iran will be subject to sanctions to an even greater extent than before.” Does Iran’s political leadership also take these risks into account?

— Both our countries are under sanctions. And this is not connected with our relations, but with the approach of our two states to the issues of managing the global world, as well as with the structure of international relations. Both Iran and Russia are opponents of a unipolar world. Both Russia and Iran want to be sovereign, independent states on a global level.

Iran has been under sanctions for more than 40 years – we were under them both when Russia and the West had pleasant relations, and now, when these relations have become bad, and Russia and Iran stand as a united front. If we suddenly abandon our global fundamental positions, there may be a possibility that the West will lift sanctions against our two states.

— Can we conclude from this that the threats of new secondary sanctions against Iran from the United States and the West do not force the Iranian leadership to be more cautious in developing relations with Russia?

— We want to have good relations with all countries.

Our principled policy is to expand and develop relations with neighboring states.

And every day we are progressively developing our relations with the Russian Federation for two reasons. The first is our neighborhood. Iran and Russia are two large neighboring countries, and there are many good opportunities for developing relations. And the second reason is that, in addition to being neighbors, we have a lot in common in our approaches.

— On October 18, the requirements of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 regarding the Iranian missile program and international cooperation with Tehran in this area ceased to apply. And, as Moscow openly made clear, the Russian side will take advantage of this and actively develop cooperation with Iran through military-technical cooperation. And this area will become one of the points of the upcoming agreement on long-term cooperation between the two countries. What specific Russian weapons is Tehran interested in and are any deals being prepared in this area?

“Our countries have taken very good steps in the field of defense, military cooperation and armaments. Russia has a very long history in the field of defense, in the field of military production.

But Iran also has experience – experience from the eight-year war that Saddam (former leader of Iran Saddam Hussein.— “Kommersant”) started against Iran. Then all the global world powers supported Saddam. We were in very, very cramped conditions in terms of defense capabilities, and Saddam had a lot of capabilities in the field of weapons. And this war (it lasted from September 1980 to August 1988.— “Kommersant”) taught us a very big lesson: in order to implement containment, we need to prepare ourselves for it. Therefore, we are ready to carry out military cooperation with many countries, including the Russian Federation. And this cooperation is carried out within the framework of international norms and rules. It is not directed against any third country.

— What specifically among Russian weapons is Tehran interested in?

— You know, it’s mostly the military who talk about this topic. This does not apply to us politicians.