Iran's supreme leader gives Putin strong backing for his war in Ukraine

TEHERAN • As President Vladimir Putin of Russia seeks to counter the West's attempt to isolate him, he received a full-throated endorsement of his war in Ukraine on Tuesday from Iran's supreme leader, who went even further than other Russian allies in backing Mr Putin's actions.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his meeting with Mr Putin during a rare international trip by the Russian leader to Iran, repeated the latter's argument that the United States and its allies in Europe had left the Kremlin no choice but to invade Ukraine.

"War is a violent and difficult endeavour, and the Islamic Republic is not at all happy that people are caught up in war," Mr Khamenei told Mr Putin, according to his office. "But in the case of Ukraine, if you had not taken the helm, the other side would have done so and initiated a war."

Mr Khamenei's public proclamation on war appeared to go beyond the much more cautious support offered by another key Russian ally, China. The Iranian leader's words were also a signal to the world that, after Europe and the US hit Russia with sanctions like those that have suffocated Iran's economy for years, the long-fraught relationship between Moscow and Teheran was solidifying into a more far-reaching partnership.

Mr Putin also met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. The three leaders discussed the war in Ukraine and the situation in Syria, where Turkey has been threatening a new military incursion in the country's north-east.

The Russian leader's trip to Iran underscored how the war in Ukraine is helping to align two regional powers isolated from Europe and the US, and altering the world's geopolitical calculus. "Russia and Iran still don't trust one another, but now need each other more than ever," said Mr Ali Vaez, Iran director for the International Crisis Group. "This is no longer a partnership of choice, but an alliance out of necessity."

For years, Russia was careful not to get too close to Iran, even as the two countries shared an adversarial relationship with the US and cooperated militarily after Russia's intervention in the Syria's civil war. For Mr Putin, his attempts to build relations with Israel and Arab countries precluded a full-fledged alliance with Teheran.

But the Ukraine war changed the calculus. Increasingly cut off from Western markets, Russia is looking to Iran as an economic partner and for expertise in avoiding sanctions. Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, has signed a non-binding US$40 billion (S$55 billion) deal to help develop gas and oil fields in Iran, according to Iranian reports.

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