Diverging allies in Syria: Russia's and Iran's grand strategies

This paper seeks to answer two main questions: a) What drove the divergence between Iran and Russia; and b) How did Russia and Iran seek to manage their diverging aims? The paper is organised into three main sections. The first outlines the state of Russia-Iran relations before Russia’s intervention in Syria and in the early months of it. The second section identifies and discusses each of the drivers of the Russia-Iran divergence, while the third looks at how Russia and Iran sought to manage them.