As Ukraine woke as much as a pre-dawn invasion by the Russian army, officers in Tehran scrambled to take a diplomatic stance that may not hurt their shut ties with a key ally, the Kremlin.
“The Ukraine disaster is rooted in NATO’s provocations,” tweeted Iran’s International Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. He urged a “cease-fire” to permit for “a political and democratic decision.” The Iranian prime diplomat’s message carried neither a condemnation of Russia nor even a point out of the nation.
Iran’s state TV supplied in depth and rolling protection of the newest developments on the bottom it known as “Russia’s Special Operation,” borrowing the terminology utilized by President Vladimir Putin.
The sympathetic method to Russia drew robust reactions from former politicians and pundits. “The state broadcaster is overlaying the warfare as if Iran is a Russia colony,” wrote former deputy parliament speaker and outspoken Reformist determine Ali Motahari, who famous, “Iran should condemn the Russian aggression in Ukraine to display its independence,” and reminded officers in Tehran of how Russians aided Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his warfare in opposition to Iran within the Nineteen Eighties.
Whereas the air time steadiness tilted towards the pro-Russia narrative, Iranian state TV additionally aired uncommon heated exchanges. “We must always not assist the Russian motion in Ukraine,” mentioned pro-reform analyst Hassan Beheshtipour. “There isn’t a assure that Russia is not going to launch the identical invasion in opposition to our nation.”
The road was echoed by many other Iranians as they dug into the historical past of World Conflict I, when huge swaths of Iranian territory fell underneath Soviet boots.
In the meantime, amid the swiftly unfolding developments, Iran’s Foreign Ministry mentioned it was prioritizing the secure evacuation of Iranian nationals, most of them college students, from Ukraine. Some, nonetheless, complained on social media that the plans got here too late and that regardless of their pleas to the Iranian Embassy in Kyiv over the previous a number of days, that they had been given little past advisories resembling to take shelter within the occasion of bombardments.
The invasion of Ukraine has additionally introduced up severe questions concerning the ongoing talks over the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in Vienna.
Iranian journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi advised Islamic Republic officers that it could be simplistic to imagine that the invasion would essentially safe Iran’s pursuits within the nuclear deal.
“It’s not a a possibility,” he wrote on Telegram. “It might fairly be a risk, jeopardizing the nuclear deal.”
He argued that Putin might properly sacrifice Iran’s pursuits by utilizing it as a bargaining chip in his standoff with the West.
