US, West 'weaker than before'

The leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said the US and West have become weaker than before, adding that despite great efforts and spending, "their policies in regional countries, including Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, are being less effective".

Speaking in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Khamenei also described the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as "dangerous".

He voiced support for the policy of replacing the US dollar with national currencies in bilateral trade ties, saying, "the dollar should be gradually removed from global transactions".

Mr Putin arrived in Tehran earlier on Tuesday to take part in a three-way summit with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the Syria peace process.

Khamenei stressed at the meeting that "war is a harsh and difficult reality, and the Islamic Republic will in no way be happy if it entangles ordinary people.

"In the case of Ukraine, however, if you had not taken the initiative, the opposite side would have caused (the outbreak) of war with its own initiative."

Khamenei stated that Western countries resolutely opposed a strong and independent Russia, adding that if NATO had not been stopped in Ukraine, it would have started the same war using Crimea as a pretext.

Iran and Russia were urged to maintain their vigilance in the face of the West's deceptive policies.

Khamenei also emphasised that economic cooperation between Tehran and Moscow was a necessity and would serve the two sides' interests, particularly in the wake of the West's sanctions against them.

It was paramount that the oil and gas agreements currently in the works between the two energy-rich countries are "followed through to the end and become operational."

For his part, the Russian president addressed the situation in Ukraine, saying, "No one is in favour of war. The loss of ordinary people's lives is a great tragedy."

"However, the West's behaviour has left us with no other option than to react."

Mr Putin considered his country's rifts with Ukraine to be rooted especially in the provocative measures that have been taken by the West, including the United States, over the past recent years, including the coup in Ukraine, which brought a Western-backed government to power there.

He also cited NATO's expansion toward Russia's borders in spite of its earlier promises to avoid such a move to be another source of difference between Moscow and Kiev.

"Some European countries said they were opposed to Ukraine's membership in NATO, but (eventually) acceded to it under America's pressure," Putin said, adding that this indicated the countries' "lack of sovereignty and independence."

He said the West's sanctions against Russia were to its own detriment, causing such problems as rising oil prices and food crises.

He pointed to the United States' use of dollar towards deployment of sanctions against and plundering of other countries.

The approach would eventually backfire against Washington itself since it undermines the global trust in the currency, and prompt countries to use alternative currencies.

"Russia and Iran (for instance) are devising new methods of using their respective national currencies in their relations," he added.