PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin presents Iran’s Supreme Leader with a Qur’an on Monday

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UPDATE 1530 GMT: The Supreme Leader told visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin that the US has a long-term plot to take control of the “whole of West Asia by dominating Syria and then expanding its dominion over the entire region”: “This plot is a threat to all nations and countries, particularly Russia and Iran.”

Ayatollah Khamenei praised Russia’s military intervention in Syria, including bombing in support of ground offensive which include Iranian troops, from September 30: “The Americans have always been trying to place their rivals in a position of passivity but you have foiled such a policy.”

He said Washington’s insistence on departure of the “legitimate and democratically-elected President Bashar al-Assad” showed the weakness of US policies, as did “direct and indirect aid to terrorist groups, including Daesh [the Islamic State]”.

Putin reportedly responded, “Unlike certain parties, we are committed to never stab our partners in the back or take any behind-the-stage move against our friends and to resolve any differences that may arise through dialogue.”

He then restated the general Russian-Iranian line on Syria:

We also stress that the Syrian crisis can only be resolved through political means and people’s vote and accepting the demands of all Syrian peoples and groups, and no one has the right to impose his views on the people of that country to decide about the government structure and fate of the President of Syria.

The Supreme Leader also used a meeting with the President of Nigeria to repeat his declaration that the US and Saudi Arabia are working with the Islamic State.

Ayatollah Khamenei said to Muhammad Buhari, “According to precise information that we have, the Americans and some reactionary governments in the region are directly helping Daesh in Iraq.” He continued:

Those international coalitions that claim to be fighting against terrorists are not trustworthy in any way because these destructive forces –– particularly America –– are the ones that stand behind the scenes of creating and supporting terrorists such as Daesh.

Khamenei said, “In the face of such dangerous enemies, Islamic countries should safeguard their own identity and interests by increasing their cooperation.”

Reinforcing the line, the Supreme Leader’s office commissioned an article by Sharmine Narwani — who has also written for Russian State outlet RT and Lebanon’s al-Akhbar — which blames the French Government for the Islamic State’s November 13 attack in Paris that killed 130 people:

Over the past three decades we have seen, over and over again, that Salafist extremists bite the hand that feeds its ranks. While mentor states enjoy the fact that militants are convenient foot soldiers and proxies who can fight their foreign battles, they do not yet see the inevitable blowback as a deterrence.

ORIGINAL ENTRY:Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, and the Supreme Leader in Tehran on Monday.

Putin is officially travelling to Iran for the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, but his priority is likely to be consideration of the situation in Syria, following the military escalation by Russia and Iran since September 30 in support of the Assad regime.

Russian warplanes have carried out attacks on thousands of targets, with more than 80% of the strikes on opposition-held territory, and Iranian commanders and fighters, Hezbollah, and Iranian-led foreign militias have been involved in the six ground offensives, leading the most successful of them against rebels south of Aleppo city.

An Iranian minister said on November 12 that Russia had agreed to give Tehran $7-8 billion in loans for joint projects. Iranian officials, including the Defense Minister, have also said that Russia is going to deliver S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, whose sale was suspended in 2010.

Putin’s meeting with Rouhani is the third this year. The President’s aide Yuri Ushakov said, “The parties will discuss all topical issues of bilateral cooperation – trade and investment cooperation, nuclear energy, oil and gas production, military and technical cooperation.”

Ushakov also said “considerable attention will be paid to urgent international issues” such as the Syrian conflict, implementation of Iran’s July 14 nuclear deal with the 5+1 Powers, and “the fight against terrorism”.

Head of Iran’s Militia: “We Have Sent No Troops to Syria”

The commander of Iran’s Basij militia, General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, has insisted that no Iranian troops have been sent into Syria.

Naqdi said in an interview on State TV on Sunday night:

The Basij and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps play an advisory role in the resistance fronts and they are transferring their experiences to the fighters and this need is felt more in Syria and less in Iraq.

We help the two countries at the request of their armies and we are just transferring our experience, but haven’t sent any forces to these states.

At least 60 Iranian commanders and fighters have been killed since October 7, as they accompanied — and sometimes led — the Assad regime’s offensives against rebels and the Islamic State in northwest Syria.

However, the Secretary of the National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, and the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami, both said Iranian units had not been deployed on the battlefield. Salami did say that the troops might be despatched if requested by the Assad regime.

(Cross-posted from Syria Daily)

Judiciary: Washington Post’s Rezaian Given Prison Sentence

Iran’s judiciary has again said that Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, detained since July 2014 on espionage charges, has been given a prison sentence.

“Jason Rezaian’s verdict has been issued, but he has not been formally notified of it,” judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei said on Sunday.

Ejei did not give the details of the sentence or the ruling against Rezaian, an Iranian-American national who has worked in Tehran since 2008 and been the Post correspondent since 2012.

Rezaian, his fellow reporter and wife Yeganeh Salehi, and two other journalists were seized in a raid on Rezaian’s home. The others were released on bail, but Rezaian was held, without access to a lawyer or information on the charges or any evidence until early 2015.

At his hearings in the spring, the judge said Rezaian’s “crimes” included a letter to President Obama and recommendation of a fellow journalist, Lara Setrakian.

In September, the Revolutionary Guards put out a film “proving” that the journalist organized espionage activities:

See Iran Feature: Revolutionary Guards Video “Washington Post’s Rezaian Ran Spy Network”