Following the recent visit to Russia by the Iranian regime’s President Ebrahim Raisi and his proposal for a 20-year agreement with that country, many Iranians are questioning whether this latest auctioneering of Iran’s wealth and resources would be in their interests.

Obviously, the regime is offering the country’s wealth purely for the political benefits that may come after that largesse. Before leaving Iran, Raisi acknowledged that the interaction between Iran and Russia would help “regional security.”  “Russia plays a pivotal role in the Eurasian Union, and our cooperation in this direction can be effective in promoting trade and economic steps. In this trip, bilateral relations, political, economic, energy and trade issues, and air and space issues will be discussed,” Raisi said.

Raisi has previously claimed that assets, including oil and energy resources, held by the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, and usually offered to foreign traders at a bargain price, would be part of the deal. The regime’s oil minister Javad Oji recently spoke to the state-run Jahan-e Sanat newspaper regarding the Iran/Russia partnership. “We made good decisions on gas trade with Russia,” he boasted.

However, it is abundantly clear that the regime’s actual motive for the partnership with Russia is to elicit more benefits for its nuclear program.  Jahan-e Sanat daily wrote on January 20, 2022, “Iran’s return to the global energy market is a positive development for the Europeans, who have challenged Russia over the Gas Stream pipeline in recent months. Russia is aware of this. The centrality of Russia in these negotiations shows that the Russians want to remain the king of the energy market, and if Iran is to return to the world market, it is better to be under Russian supervision. In fact, the Russians want to secure energy concessions from Iran before JCPOA is revived.”

The article went on to point out that Iran is likely to come out as the loser in any new agreements made with the Russians. In terms of the 20-year agreement, which includes the development of Iran’s Chalous gas field, Russia is set to receive a $450 billion share in the project. The article highlighted that “this action could have significant economic and geopolitical consequences.”

At a time when the Iranian regime has pinned hope on Russia, the article demonstrates how the Iranian people will be suffering from the regime’s nuclear games and greed. In any case, it seems that the regime has no choice but to offer the country’s wealth on a silver platter to Russia to ensure that it would support the Iranian position during the talks.

Jahan-e Sanat explained that “global reports indicate that Russia, with 35 trillion cubic meters of gas, holds more than 19 percent of the world’s gas reserves; about 65% of the reserves are in the Siberian region. Iran is ranked second after Russia with a share of 17.1% of the world’s gas reserves with 33 trillion cubic meters of gas.

This explains why the Russians welcome the challenges that the regime is facing in its dealing with the West.

The daily added, “On the other hand, Russia can take control of Iran’s gas resources in the Caspian Sea, and thus, Iran’s access to Europe and the Caucasus will be with the presence and supervision of the Russians.”

Given the regime’s record of accomplishment in international relations, this latest agreement does not bode well for the future of both the Iranian people and Iran. Even regime experts have suggested that the relations with China and Russia are likely to do more harm than good.