A Study of the Backgrounds and Causes behind Iran-Russia's Strategic Coalition in Syria

Cooperation in the management of the Syrian crisis is considered a new field in the process of collaboration between Iran and Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In this regard, there are two different views about the strategic or tactical perspective of relations between two countries inside and outside Syria. Within this framework, the main research question of the present study is: what are the main reasons behind Iran-Russia cooperation in the Syrian war and what is the perspective of the strategic coalition between two countries? The research method is descriptive-analytic and it relies on the hypothesis that since Iran and Russia had long term political-economic interests and also a common enemy in Syria, operational cooperation between two countries in the level of strategic coalition started which successfully led to the stabilization of the Syrian government and provision of the common interests of Iran and Russia. Yet, their strategic coalition in Syria and globally is under the influence of historic perceptions underlying relations between two countries especially, from the view of some Iranian and Russian elites and it would create an important challenge in transition to their strategic alliance in international policy. Accordingly, the research results confirm their strategic coalition but reject their strategic alliance. Iran has always supported the stability of its neighboring countries. The most important threat to Iran is lack of government or having a weak government in the neighboring countries as the instability would penetrate into the territories of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It seems that the Russian federation is also afraid of extension of the Syrian crisis to enter its southern territories. Lack of government in the neighboring countries would be a basis for the emergence of some groups such as ISIS and so on which can possibly be used by regional and trans-regional competitive powers. From this view, one of the important threats to the national security of Iran and Russia is lack of government or having weak governments in their neighboring countries because in this situation regional and trans-regional powers as well as terrorist groups can plan and organize to challenge the national security of two countries.