Russia-US relations are at a post-Cold War low just about everywhere, except at the Iran nuclear talks.
Despite a chill over the Ukraine crisis that has spread to almost every element of their relationship, Moscow and Washington continue to find common cause on one of the most pressing issues on the global agenda — a deal to prevent Iran from being able to make nuclear weapons.
Officials on both sides credit the other with pragmatic proposals and good faith that transcend their broader differences.
For the US, failure to get an agreement carries the unappealing risk of involvement in a new Middle East conflict, nor does US President Barack Obama want to lose out on a key plank of his foreign policy legacy. The Obama administration has said it could strike Iran’s nuclear facilities militarily should diplomatic attempts to curb its nuclear activities fail. Israel is even more upfront about threatening to launch air attacks, a move that could draw the US into the fray.
The Russians also do not want a US-Iran war. Gary Samore, a US negotiator at the nuclear talks until 2013, says getting an agreement is in Moscow’s strategic interest as it tries to limit the US presence in the Middle East.
“The Russians don’t like to see the US going around the world, bombing countries,” said Samore, who is now with Harvard’s Belfer Center think tank.
To that end, the Iran talks are also serving as a conduit between Russia and the US on various ways of reducing Middle East turmoil.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday said his talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna would be an opportunity “to exchange opinions on how our two countries and other countries in the region could pool our efforts” to fight the Islamic State.
The desire is mutual.
While the Russians and Americans differ on Moscow’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Samore said the Kremlin’s backing of al-Assad is now secondary to a way of defeating the Islamic State.
Though the venue was the nuclear talks, Lavrov’s comments after meeting Kerry reflected how they have evolved as a place to discuss general shared concerns.
The Russian said the talks were “not the main subject of our meeting.” Instead, he said he and Kerry exchanged “specific opinions and ideas on how to try to make the situation more manageable” in the campaign against the Islamic State.
Harvard political science professor Graham Allison sees the Russia-US cooperation as “good evidence that where there is real shared national interest, both Putin’s Russia and Obama’s US can see beyond the shouting over Ukraine.”
However, it is not all about goodwill.
A nuclear deal may serve Russia’s own needs on a strategic level, and work against the US. It could strengthen Tehran as a regional power allied with Moscow, both as a proxy backing the Syrian government and as a rival to US-backed Saudi Arabia in the struggle for influence in the region.
Economic interests also play a role in Moscow’s support for a nuclear deal, even if the lifting of sanctions triggered by an agreement would hurt Russia in the short run. These would put more Iranian oil on the market in competition with Russian crude.
However, Moscow is reportedly working on a solution by offering cash for Iranian oil. Tehran then would spend the money on Russian goods and Russia can sell Iran state-of-the-art drilling equipment and other technology it needs to rebuild its sanctions-battered oil sector.
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