ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the Soviet-Iranian relationship in the Gorbachev era. It looks at the historical context of Moscow's links with Teheran and examines how Soviet policy toward the Gulf War affected the bilateral ties. The oscillations in Soviet-Iranian relations since March 1985 can be explained as the interplay of three factors; the superpower relationship in the Gulf, the Kremlin's perceptions of regional politics, and the domestic political context in both Teheran and Moscow. In the foreign policy realm, Gorbachev began to speak in terms of navoe myshlenie, the "new political thinking," which translated into political detente with the West coupled with a search for resolutions to regional conflicts. The uncertainty in the leadership meant that Soviet policy basically drifted. Mikhail Gorbachev thus inherited the legacy of his predecessors' policy while facing intensifying regional complications. The evolution of Iranian policy and the Soviet response to it was jolted by the publication of The Satanic Verses.
