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Russia and Iran Have a Troubled History Despite their Current Alliance

FILE - In this photo released by the Tasnim News Agency, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops travel in a plane from Rasht in northern Iran, to Kermanshah in western Iran, during a drill on Jan. 5, 2025. (Hossein Zohrevand/Tasnim News Agency via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo released by the Tasnim News Agency, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops travel in a plane from Rasht in northern Iran, to Kermanshah in western Iran, during a drill on Jan. 5, 2025. (Hossein Zohrevand/Tasnim News Agency via AP, File)
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Russia and Iran Have a Troubled History Despite their Current Alliance

FILE - In this photo released by the Tasnim News Agency, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops travel in a plane from Rasht in northern Iran, to Kermanshah in western Iran, during a drill on Jan. 5, 2025. (Hossein Zohrevand/Tasnim News Agency via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo released by the Tasnim News Agency, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops travel in a plane from Rasht in northern Iran, to Kermanshah in western Iran, during a drill on Jan. 5, 2025. (Hossein Zohrevand/Tasnim News Agency via AP, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is hosting his Iranian counterpart Friday for the signing of a broad pact between Moscow and Tehran.
The Kremlin says the “comprehensive strategic partnership” agreement between Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will take their cooperation to a new level.
The signing comes ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to broker peace in Ukraine and take a tougher stance on Iran.
What to know about the Russian-Iranian relationship:
Historic Rivals Become Allies
Russia and Iran fought wars in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the Russian Empire capturing broad territories in the Caucasus and the Caspian region previously controlled by Persian rulers. In the early 20th century, Russian troops occupied large parts of northern Iran, but the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution ended their presence. In World War II, the Soviet Union and Britain invaded Iran, which still evokes painful memories in Tehran.
Tensions ran high in the Cold War, when Tehran was a US ally under the Shah of Iran. After his ouster in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, leader Khomeini castigated the US as the “Great Satan,” and denounced the USSR as the “Lesser Satan.”
Russia-Iran ties warmed after the USSR's demise in 1991. Moscow became an important trade partner and a key supplier of weapons and high technologies to Iran, which faced isolation from sweeping international sanctions.
Russia built Iran’s first nuclear power plant in the port of Bushehr that became operational in 2013. The next year, Moscow signed a contract to build two more nuclear reactors.
Russia was part of the 2015 deal between Iran and six nuclear powers offering sanctions relief for Tehran in exchange for curbing its atomic program and opening it to broader international scrutiny. Moscow offered political support to Iran when the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement during Trump’s first term.
Allies In Syrian Civil War In Bolstering Assad
After a civil war in Syria erupted in 2011, Russia and Iran pooled efforts to shore up Bashar Assad's government against the Türkiye-backed opposition seeking his ouster. In 2015, Russia launched a military campaign in Syria, joining Iran and its proxies, that helped Assad re-establish control in most of the country.
With Moscow preoccupied with fighting in Ukraine, and Iran facing challenges from Israel, they failed to prevent a swift collapse of Assad’s rule last month after a lightning opposition offensive.
How Russia And Iran Cooperate
The West alleges that in 2022, Russia and Iran signed a $1.7 billion deal for Shahed drones after Putin sent troops into Ukraine, and the US also believes Iran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles, but neither Moscow nor Tehran ever acknowledged the actions.
Iranian leaders give strong political support to Putin, echoing his arguments for justifying the conflict.
Tehran likely hopes to secure financial and defense promises from Moscow for its tattered economy after the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal and amid increasing pressure in the Middle East.
Assad’s downfall was a major blow to Tehran's self-described “Axis of Resistance” in the region after Israel’s punishing offensives against two militant groups backed by Iran -– Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel attacked Iran directly twice, and Israeli officials claimed the raids took out Tehran's Russia-supplied S-300 air defense systems.
Iran wants Russian long-range air defense systems and other weapons. It has hoped to get Russia's advanced Su-35 fighter jets to upgrade its aging fleet hobbled by sanctions, but Moscow only provided a few Yak-130 trainer jets in 2023.
Trump's policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran heralds more trouble for Tehran. This month, he left open the possibility of the US preemptive airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, but some officials increasingly suggest it could pursue atomic weapons.
Deepening ties between Moscow and Tehran Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty covers all areas -– from trade and military cooperation to science, education and culture. He dismissed any link with Trump’s inauguration, saying the signing was planned long ago.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described it as a “fully comprehensive treaty that takes into account all dimensions of the relationship, with a particularly strong economic aspect.”
He told state TV that while it covers defense and security cooperation, “this is a complete and comprehensive treaty, not one focused on a specific purpose, such as a military alliance.”
Healing Rifts, Lifting Suspicions
Despite the official rhetoric, the nations' troubled history makes many Iranians suspicious about Russia. Kremlin efforts to balance courting Tehran while staying friendly with Israel adds to the uneasiness.
There are signs of growing discontent about Russia within Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force answerable only to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Last week, an audio recording leaked in Iranian media with a Guard general blaming Russia for woes Iran suffered in Syria.

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Features

Mass Wedding in Gaza Celebrates New Life After Years of War and Tragedy 

Palestinian couples participate in a mass wedding ceremony in Hamad City in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP)
Palestinian couples participate in a mass wedding ceremony in Hamad City in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP)
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Mass Wedding in Gaza Celebrates New Life After Years of War and Tragedy 

Palestinian couples participate in a mass wedding ceremony in Hamad City in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP)
Palestinian couples participate in a mass wedding ceremony in Hamad City in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP)

Eman Hassan Lawwa was dressed in traditional Palestinian prints and Hikmat Lawwa wore a suit as they walked hand-in-hand past the crumbled buildings of southern Gaza in a line of other couples dressed in exactly the same way.

The 27-year-old Palestinians were among 54 couples to get married Tuesday in a mass wedding in war-ravaged Gaza that represented a rare moment of hope after two years of devastation, death and conflict.

"Despite everything that has happened, we will begin a new life," Hikmat Lawwa said. "God willing, this will be the end of the war," he said.

Weddings are a key part of Palestinian culture that have become rare in Gaza during the war. The tradition has begun to resume in the wake of a fragile ceasefire, even if the weddings are different from the elaborate ceremonies once held in the territory.

As roaring crowds waved Palestinian flags in the southern city of Khan Younis, the celebrations were dampened by the ongoing crisis across Gaza.

Most of Gaza's 2 million residents, including Eman and Hikmat Lawwa, have been displaced by the war, entire areas of cities have been flattened and aid shortages and outbursts in conflict continue to plague the daily lives of people.

The young couple, who are distant relatives, fled to the nearby town of Deir al-Balah during the war and have struggled to find basics like food and shelter. They said they don’t know how they’re going to build their lives together given the situation around them.

"We want to be happy like the rest of the world. I used to dream of having a home, a job, and being like everyone else," Hikmat said. "Today, my dream is to find a tent to live in."

"Life has started to return, but it's not like we hoped it would," he added.

Palestinians watch and celebrate a mass wedding ceremony in Hamad City in Khan Younis Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP)

The celebration was funded by Al Fares Al Shahim, a humanitarian aid operation backed by the United Arab Emirates. In addition to holding the event, the organization offered couples a small sum of money and other supplies to start their lives together.

For Palestinians, weddings are often elaborate dayslong celebrations, seen as both an important social and economic choice that spells out the future for many families. They include joyful dances and processions through the streets by massive families in fabric patterns donned by the couple and their loved ones and heaping plates of food.

Weddings can also be a symbol of resilience and a celebration of new generations of families carrying on Palestinian traditions, said Randa Serhan, a professor of sociology at Barnard College who has studied Palestinian weddings.

"With every new wedding is going to come children and it means that the memories and the lineages are not going to die," Serhan said. "The couples are going to continue life in an impossible situation."

On Tuesday, a procession of cars carrying the couples drove through stretches of collapsed buildings. Hikmat and Eman Lawwa waved Palestinian flags with other couples as families surrounding them danced to music blaring over crowds.

Eman, who was cloaked in a white, red and green traditional dress, said the wedding offered a small moment of relief after years of suffering. But she said it was also marked by the loss of her father, mother, and other family members who were killed during the war.

"It’s hard to experience joy after such sorrow," she said, tears streaming down her face. "God willing, we will rebuild brick-by-brick."

Features

‘Some Took Part in Israeli Captive Handover’…How Hamas Fighters Hid in Rafah Tunnels ?

Israeli captive Avera Mengistu stands on the handover platform as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel in Rafah in February (Reuters)
Israeli captive Avera Mengistu stands on the handover platform as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel in Rafah in February (Reuters)
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‘Some Took Part in Israeli Captive Handover’…How Hamas Fighters Hid in Rafah Tunnels ?

Israeli captive Avera Mengistu stands on the handover platform as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel in Rafah in February (Reuters)
Israeli captive Avera Mengistu stands on the handover platform as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel in Rafah in February (Reuters)

A series of Israeli military statements reporting the killing or capture of members of Hamas’s Izz al Din al Qassam Brigades inside Rafah’s tunnel network has sharpened scrutiny of who these fighters were and how long they had remained hidden underground.

The operations targeted men who had spent months beneath a city Israel moved to occupy in May 2024 and later brought under full control.

For more than a month, indirect contacts had sought to arrange the fighters’ safe withdrawal from the tunnels unarmed, an effort that helped expedite the handover of the body of Israeli officer Hadar Goldin on November 9.

But Israel later backed away from informal understandings with the United States, which had been engaging on the issue with Türkiye, over allowing the fighters to exit safely.

As weeks passed, Israel began hunting them down, killing and capturing them in groups through airstrikes or direct pursuit once they emerged from tunnels or ambush positions.

The pressure mounted as the fighters became confined to the last pockets of tunnels in Rafah’s eastern al-Jneina neighborhood.

Eight months in tunnels and ambush positions

Field sources from Hamas told Asharq Al-Awsat that the fighters had spent most of the two year war inside the city’s tunnels despite the presence of Israeli forces above ground and despite Israel’s entry into many of the passageways.

The sources said the tunnels had been built in ways that made them difficult for Israel to uncover fully even now.

They said that during the first truce which lasted seven days in November 2023, the fighters surfaced, then returned underground when the fighting resumed.

They alternated between staying in the tunnels and emerging into ambush positions above ground. Communication with their commanders continued until a second truce was reached in January of this year which lasted until March 18.

One source said that before the fighting resumed, and despite Israel’s deployment in Rafah, the fighters managed to emerge above ground, reach Khan Yunis, meet their commanders and take part in the handover of Israeli captives.

Some participated in the February release of Avera Mengistu, who had been held in Gaza since the 2014 war.

After the war resumed and diplomatic efforts to halt it failed, Qassam fighters returned to Rafah through the tunnels and resumed their ambush positions above ground.

From late March until August, the fighters remained in touch with their command and carried out a string of attacks that inflicted casualties on Israeli forces even after Israel declared it had brought Rafah under full control.

The Qassam Brigades at the time launched a series of attacks named Gates of Hell that killed about six Israeli soldiers.

The attacks involved detonating military vehicles, booby trapped houses and tunnel openings. In one incident in May, Qassam fighters attempted to seize an Israeli soldier.

Hamas, which was then engaged in negotiations to halt the war, sought through these operations to show that the Rafah Brigade remained active at a time when Israeli military sources were claiming the brigade had been dismantled after its battalions were destroyed.

According to information obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, Rafah fighters and their immediate commanders spent more than eight months inside tunnels and in above ground ambush positions.

How did they obtain food and water

Field sources in the factions told Asharq Al-Awsat that the tunnels had been stocked with limited supplies of food and water.

One source who had experienced a similar shortage in a previous Gaza war said the fighters had likely relied on whatever food they could find.

This included leftover supplies from Israeli soldiers in some of the houses they had occupied or food in homes of residents that had not been destroyed.

The source cited social media posts from months earlier showing handwritten notes left by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters apologizing to homeowners for taking food.

The sources said duties differed inside the Qassam Brigades. Some fighters handled logistics, others manned ambush positions and others moved between units while maintaining direct coordination with field commanders.

Senior commanders

Among those whose photos Israeli media circulated after they were killed were the commander of Rafah’s eastern battalion, Mohammad al-Bawab, and his deputy, Ismail Abu Labda. Al-Bawab was married to Abu Labda’s sister.

Another senior figure killed was Tawfiq Salem, commander of the battalion’s elite company, according to the sources.

Abu Labda appeared in the February handover of Mengistu and was in direct contact with the International Committee of the Red Cross during the transfer. The sources said al-Bawab monitored the process from a distance but did not take part directly.

The sources added that al-Bawab and Abu Labda were among those who oversaw the capture of Israeli officer Hadar Goldin during the 2014 war.

Israel also killed Abdullah Hamad, the son of senior Hamas political bureau member Ghazi Hamad and a member of the movement’s negotiating delegation.

Field sources said the younger Hamad had been active in the Qassam Brigades and had graduated from the Rabat Military College run by the Hamas government before the war, later becoming an instructor.

He was killed alongside his cousin Ahmed Saeed Hamad, the son of Ghazi Hamad’s brother, while they were in a tunnel with Qassam commanders and other fighters.

The sources said Saeed Hamad had lost three daughters in Israeli strikes on their homes. The daughters were killed after their husbands took part in the October 7, 2023 attack and in other operations during the war.

Features

Israeli Settler Outposts Spread Among West Bank Villages and Fuel Fear of More Attacks

An Israeli settler outpost stands in the middle of a valley next to olive trees in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP)
An Israeli settler outpost stands in the middle of a valley next to olive trees in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Settler Outposts Spread Among West Bank Villages and Fuel Fear of More Attacks

An Israeli settler outpost stands in the middle of a valley next to olive trees in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP)
An Israeli settler outpost stands in the middle of a valley next to olive trees in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP)

The fear is palpable in this Palestinian village. It’s clear in how farmers gather their harvests quickly, how they scan the valley for movement, how they dare not stray past certain roads. At any time, they say, armed Israeli settlers could descend.

“In a matter of minutes, they get on their phones. They gather themselves, and they surprise you,” said Yasser Alkam, a Palestinian-American lawyer and farmer from the village of Turmus Ayya. “They hide between the trees. They ambush people and beat them up severely.”

In recent months, Alkam says Turmus Ayya has weathered near-daily attacks by settlers, especially after they set up an outpost that the anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now says is on his village’s land.

Alkam says he can’t reach his own fields for fear of being assaulted. In a particularly gruesome attack, he watched a settler beat a Palestinian woman unconscious with a spiky club.

The fear is shared throughout the West Bank. During October's olive harvest, settlers across the territory launched an average of eight attacks daily, according to the United Nations humanitarian office, the most since it began collecting data in 2006. The attacks continued in November, with the UN recording at least 136 more by Nov. 24.

Settlers burned cars, desecrated mosques, ransacked industrial plants and destroyed cropland. Israeli authorities have done little beyond issuing occasional condemnations of the violence.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the attackers as a minority that did not represent most settlers in the West Bank, where settlements are considered illegal by most of the international community. But their continued expansion of outposts — conducted in public with seemingly few legal repercussions — and the violence have cemented a fearful status quo for their Palestinian neighbors.

A brutal assault on a grandmother

While driving in fields east of Turmus Ayya on Oct. 19, Alkam saw Afaf Abu Alia, a grandmother from a nearby village, harvesting a grove of olive trees. They were loaned to her after the Israeli military bulldozed her own 500 trees this year, she said.

She worked until she heard yelling in Hebrew. Settlers descended on the road nearby. Suddenly, one ran toward her with a club.

“The monsters started beating me,” she told The Associated Press three weeks after the attack. “After that, my memories get all blurry.”

Video of the attack obtained by the AP shows a settler beating Alia with the jagged club, even after she was motionless. She was hospitalized for four days, requiring 20 stitches on her head, she said.

Asked for comment on the attack, the military said its troops and police had “defused” a confrontation in which Israeli civilians were torching vehicles and using violence.

In rare move, Israel charges settler responsible Police arrested a man named Ariel Dahari for beating Abu Alia. An Israeli court charged him later with terrorism.

Dahari is being represented by Honenu, an organization that provides legal aid to settlers, who say the West Bank is part of the biblical Jewish homeland and often cast attacks as self-defense. According to an article about Dahari on the group's website, he has received at least 18 administrative orders since 2016 that included house arrest and confinement to his town in Israel.

He told the Israeli news site Arutz Sheva in 2023 that he had been kicked out of the territory twice. It is not clear how he was able to return.

Palestinians and human rights workers say Israeli soldiers and police routinely fail to prosecute attacks by violent settlers. Their sense of impunity has deepened under Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a settler, and Defense Minister Israel Katz, who in January released settlers from administrative detention, Israel’s practice of detaining individuals without charge or trial.

The number of investigations opened into settler violence since 2023, Ben-Gvir's first year in office, has plummeted, according to a report by Israel's Channel 12 TV that cited official police data. Police opened only 60 investigations into settler violence in 2024, compared with 150 cases in 2023 and 235 cases in 2022, the report said.

About 94% of all investigation files opened by Israeli police into settler violence from 2005 to 2024 ended without an indictment, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din. Since 2005, just 3% of those investigations led to convictions.

Dahari told Arutz Sheva that he was determined to stay in the West Bank.

“We will not give up our grip on our land because of one order or another. We will continue to build it and make it flourish everywhere,” he said, adding that he hoped “the security establishment” would “invest all its resources in the war against the Arab enemy, who is the real enemy of us all.”

When reached by the AP, Dahari’s lawyer, Daniel Shimshilashvili, sent a statement from Honenu, saying there was “slim evidence” against Dahari.

Threats are reinforced by settler outposts

The villagers from Turmus Ayya say it's not enough to arrest one settler — the threat of violence is reinforced by the outpost in the nearby valley called Emek Shilo.

Emek Shilo was founded this year on private Palestinian land, according to Peace Now. It was started by a well-known settler named Amishav Melet, said three Palestinians living in Turmus Ayya and Yair Dvir, the spokesperson for Israeli rights group B'tselem. On his personal X account, Melet posted videos of the outpost’s construction.

Villagers alleged that Melet travels the valley in an all-terrain vehicle, surveilling their activities. He’s frequently armed, they said.

Usually little more than a few sheds and a pen for livestock, such outposts can impose control on nearby land and water sources. They often turn into authorized settlements, spelling the end of Palestinian communities.

Israeli police did not comment when asked about Melet.

Abdel Nasser Awwad had to halt construction of a new family home when the outpost was established. In security camera footage he shared with AP, masked figures showed up at the construction site, smashing his truck with a club and appearing to cut piping. He said they have stoned three of his workers.

When AP visited the village, groups of settlers were visible around the outpost and a settler tractor patrolled the area. Drones hummed in the air.

Melet was convicted of assaulting police in 2014, according to court records. In an interview with Israel's Ynet news in 2015, Melet said he had received administrative orders barring him from the West Bank.

In response to questions from the AP, Melet said he was a “peace activist.”

“Any claim against me that I am active or connected to violence or terrorism or any illegal action is a lie and a falsehood!” he wrote.

He called the AP’s questions “part of a cruel and false campaign” against Zionism that “reeks” of antisemitism.

In video from Oct. 20 shared with the AP by Alkam, a man who Alkam said was Melet was recorded telling a farmer picking olives to leave. The farmer responded, “The army allowed us to be here today.”

“Where is the army?” the man identified as Melet said. “I am the army.”

When settlers descend on Turmus Ayya, the mosque emits a loud siren. Young men dash quickly to the village entrance, forming a barrier between their families and the settlers.

During the harvest, many villagers brought cameras into the fields, hoping footage showing assaults would help hold settlers accountable.

It’s a far cry from past olive harvests, when families spent all day in the groves, picnicking beneath the trees.

Abu Alia, the grandmother, said nothing will prevent her from returning.

“I’ll be back next year.”