Vladimir Putin may need to go back to the drawing board on Iran

Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, killed last week by a US drone in Baghdad, has been credited with persuading Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene militarily in Syria in 2015, a claim the Kremlin denies. Regardless of the truth of that particular story, though, the inevitable escalation following Soleimani’s death has the potential to change Putin’s calculus in the region. Commenting on Soleimani’s demise, the Russian defence ministry praised his “indisputable contribution” to defeating Islamic State (IS) in Syria. The ministry credited him for organising an armed resistance to IS long before the US created its own anti-IS coalition. Indeed, if it weren’t for Iran’s so-called axis...