Prospect for Russian-Iranian Relations over Syria: Strategic Implications for I. R. Iran

Since 2011, Syria has become a realm of a prolonged and full-fledged war, engaging a variety of actors, ranging from internal to regional and extra-regional, either state or non-state ones; on this reason, it can be argued that this situation has led it into a most international civil war during Post-Cold War Era. In this framework, among involved states in this war, Iranian-Russian cooperation has played a significant role in preventing Bashar Assad from being overthrown, and in defeating ISIS and eliminating or undermining another terrorist groups.  However, in the meanwhile, of important is prospect for these cooperative relations over Syria following persistence of Bashar Assad and process of eliminating or undermining terrorism operating within it. Thus, drawing on Future Study Approach and relying on scenario-writing method, the article seeks to identify cases occurring in Russian-Iranian relations over Syria and to analyze its strategic Implications for I. R. Iran. Findings show that, “out of three general scenarios including prevalence of cooperation, progression towards prevalence of conflict, and simultaneousness of cooperation and conflict,” third one seems to be most likely. On this basis, it can be suggested that having specified areas of cooperation as well as conflict, I R Iran formulates a shared agenda over them with Russia.