Iran's First Vice President stated at a special memorial ceremony on Wednesday that even Russia has not cooperated with Iran to ease the pressure of US sanctions. According to the semi-official news agency "Mehr," Jahangiri said, "The United States has intensified the economic war against the Iranian people to the extent that we could not even convince our neighbors and friendly countries to return our frozen assets, and they have openly declared that such a thing is not possible, as the United States is present everywhere and causes trouble for our country if we give you the money."
He continued, "We could not believe that even India did not buy oil from Iran and did not pay us, and even Russia, along with some neighboring countries for which we sacrificed the blood of our sons for their independence (Iraq), did the same. We were alone in this economic war, and we did not retaliate against these countries either."
In recent years, both Iran and Russia have acted as allies in several areas, including during the war against Bashar al-Assad's opponents. In a leaked audio recording of Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister criticized the dominance of the Revolutionary Guard over Iran's foreign policy, stating that some of these policies, including those related to Syria, were submitted to the "will of Russia," as he put it. Zarif also accused Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force, the external intervention arm of the Revolutionary Guard, of collaborating with Moscow in efforts to "destroy" the achievements of President Hassan Rouhani's government.
Earlier, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly spoken about his government's "friendly" relations with Russia, criticized Moscow in June 2020, saying, "The Iranian people do not know whether the Russians are with us or against us... We should not see our neighbor standing in sensitive circumstances with those who have been hostile to the Iranian people with all their strength for thirty years."
It is worth noting that the Supreme Leader, who sets the country's general policies, supports the "Look to the East" policy and calls for fostering friendly relations with both Russia and China, and Iran signed a controversial 25-year agreement with China.
