INTERNATIONAL: Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Iran for a fifth time. Is it a lot or a little? Well, if you count back to 2000, when he first became the leader of Russia, it doesn’t seem much.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday 19th July that Russia, Iran and Turkey were committed to continue efforts on "normalization" of the situation in Syria.

Speaking after meeting with leaders of Turkey and Iran in Tehran, Putin said the countries agreed to continue consultations on Syria.

Russia and Turkey were "satisfied" by meeting in Istanbul last week where the sides discussed grain exports via the Black Sea.

Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are expected to sign a deal later this week aimed at resuming the shipping of grain from Ukraine across the Black Sea.

Putin and Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held a meeting in Iran earlier on Tuesday when Putin said that not all the issues had been resolved yet on the topic, "but the fact that there is movement is already good."

Putin added that Russia and Iran discussed usage of national currencies in bilateral settlements.

Iran is increasingly involved in the multilateral format of cooperation with Russia - it has already joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) – the accession procedure will be completed in autumn – and Tehran wants to join BRICS. In other words, we are talking about a full-fledged course towards strategic cooperation between the two countries, both bilaterally and on the global stage. Russia and Iran have enormous potential for cooperation, from trade to the North-South transport corridor linking the Baltic Sea to Iranian ports in the Arabian Sea. That is, the European Union to India via the Caspian Sea.

There is no need to think that Russia’s conflict with the West has made it irrelevant - the potential for North-South trade is still enormous. Even if the war of sanctions between Russia and the EU lasts for a long time, the corridor will be needed for Russia’s trade with the Middle East and Asia.

The Islamic Republic is not a carbon copy of foreign models, Western or Eastern - it is a unique Iranian invention. It is complex, based on both tradition (religious and national) and the notion of the correct form of popular representation and the application of Islamic law. With its problems, mistakes, and lessons, but surviving in the most difficult external conditions. None of the great powers - and Iran is undoubtedly among them - has demonstrated anything like this kind of creativity in building a new kind of state in recent decades. The last one to have a similar experience was the Soviet Union.

Iran supports a political solution to Syria's crisis, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in a televised speech to a three-way summit with Russia and Turkey on the Syrian conflict in Tehran.

During the talks, Raisi denounced the presence of American forces in the country.

"Syria's fate should be decided by its people... without foreign intervention," he said.

"The illegitimate presence of occupying U.S. forces destabilizes Syria."