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Iran fights to loosen America's
noose
By Hooman Peimani
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi began
his official visit to three Caucasian states of
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia on Monday. As the rapid
expansion of an American presence in Iran's vicinity is
increasing Iran's insecurity, the diplomatic tour
reflected not only a move to preserve Iran's long-term
regional interests, but also an attempt to prevent its
total encirclement by pro-American hostile states, now a
more tangible threat due to Iraq's developments.
Led by Kharrazi, the Iranian delegation, which
will stay in the Caucasus until Thursday, includes
Iranian special envoy for Caspian Sea affairs Mehdi
Safari and Fazel Amir-Jahani, a member of the Iranian
parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy
Commission. As announced on Monday in Tehran, the
visit's main objectives included "boosting Tehran's
ties, especially political and economic relations, with
[the Caucasian] countries, regional cooperation and
[discussing] the latest developments pertaining to the
Iraq crisis".
The Caucasus is important for Iran
both for security and economic reasons. As a neighboring
region with ethnic ties with Iran, its instability could
spill over into that country. It could also drag Iran
into a regional conflict as Iran could not remain
indifferent to destabilizing developments in its
adjacent region. The Caucasus burst into civil war in
the early 1990s when Georgia's regions of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia sought independence and a territorial
conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh
pitted Armenia against Azerbaijan. As neither conflict
has been settled yet, another round of conflicts could
well take place in the future. Mindful of this fragile
situation, Kharrazi stated in Baku, "Iran attaches
importance to the restoration of security in the
Caucasus".
A prevailing hostility towards Iran
in the Caucasus could also endanger Iran's national
security, an unacceptable scenario for Tehran. In this
regard, the growing American military presence in that
region has been a major source of concern for the
Iranians since last year when Washington concluded
military and security agreements with all the Caucasian
states. Armenia's close ties with both Iran and Russia
restrict the scope of the American-Armenian military
ties and thus their menacing nature. However, the
growing American military ties with Georgia and
Azerbaijan, which have respectively experienced
difficulties with Russia and Iran, has made the Iranians
anxious about the long-term implications of such ties.
The stationing of about 1,000 American military
"advisers" in Georgia since last year has justified
Tehran's concern. Apart from security considerations,
the Caucasus' importance for Iran lies in its
geographical characteristic as a land link between Asia
and Europe. For that matter, it offers Iran an
alternative route to Europe to that of Turkey, Iran's
unreliable pro-American neighbor. Finally, this is an
important region for its being home to oil-rich
Azerbaijan. Iran is interested in participating in the
development of that country's oil industry and in
providing it with an energy export route through which
the other two Caspian states, Kazakhstan and
Turkmenistan, could also export their fossil energy.
However, the American opposition to Iran's involvement
in the Caspian region has extremely limited Iran's role
in those fields.
Iran has had stable and
friendly ties with Armenia and Georgia since their
independence in 1991, but its relations with Azerbaijan
have experienced difficult periods. Yet, despite a clear
tendency towards extensive ties with the US, long-term
considerations has inclined the Azeri government to
welcome Iran's willingness to improve ties, especially
since last year. Their ties have since taken a clear and
friendly direction despite disagreements on dividing the
oil-rich Caspian Sea. Both sides have sought to address
that issue through negotiations.
On Monday,
Kharrazi held talks with his Azeri counterpart, Vilayat
Guliyev, and Azeri President Haidar Aliyev in
Azerbaijan's capital of Baku. The focus of his talks
were on two major issues. One was the settlement of the
Azeri-Armenian conflict over Nagorno Karabakh now under
Armenian control. Kharrazi offered Iran's readiness for
mediation between the two sides as he called for
"persistent efforts to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict", whose prolongation had had "repercussions on
the region's security", a source of regional tension.
Another major issue as yet to be agreed on is
the legal regime for dividing the Caspian Sea among its
littoral states. Iran backs a joint use of its resources
based on an agreement among all its littoral countries,
while Azerbaijan, along with Russia and Kazakhstan,
supports its division into national territories
according to bilateral agreements. During his meeting
with President Aliyev, Kharrazi stressed that Iran's
stance on that issue had not changed as he held "A legal
regime to govern the Caspian Sea should be based on the
consensus of the five littoral states". Nevertheless, he
expressed optimism that the ongoing negotiations between
Baku and Tehran would lead to an agreement possibly
during Iranian President Mohammed Khatami's upcoming
visit to Baku.
During their talks, Kharrazi and
Aliyev referred to Aliyev's visit to Iran last May as a
turning point in their relations, which have since
remained tension free. Describing it as "quite important
and fruitful", Aliyev called for more extensive economic
relations, a rapidly growing field, since "the
Azerbaijan Republic attaches great importance to the
participation of Iranian companies in [its] development
projects".
On Tuesday, Kharrazi meet in
Georgia's capital of Tbilisi with Georgian officials,
including his counterpart, Irakli Menagharishvili, and
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze. The main focus
of his meeting was security, a vital issue for Georgia
which is facing a very fragile situation worsened last
year as Russia threatened to use force to deal with the
anti-Russian Chechens operating from Georgia's Pankisi
Gorge region. Drawing on that background, Kharrazi
stressed the importance of security in the Caucasus to
which Iran attached "utmost importance".
Iran
and Georgia have enjoyed stable political relations, but
their economic relations have not grown accordingly,
despite their positive direction. Seeking
diversification of Georgia's economic partners,
Shevardnadzhe therefore called for addressing that
shortcoming through the two countries' activation of
"their joint economic commissions". He also expressed an
interest in expanding ties with Iran in all fields,
including cultural, educational and trade, in addition
to Kharrazi's stated fields of energy and
transportation.
Kharrazi was due to end his trip
to Georgia on Wednesday and then fly to Yerven to hold
talks with Robert Kocharian, the president of Iran's
friendly neighbor, Armenia. Kharrazi has not reached any
groundbreaking agreement with Georgia and Azerbaijan and
is not expected to reach such agreement with Armenia.
His diplomatic move aimed at the consolidation of Iran's
friendly ties with its strategically important
neighbors, while seeking to eliminate potential sources
of conflicts with Azerbaijan.
This has become
especially important as the American occupation of Iraq
has radically increased Iran's fear of full encirclement
by pro-American hostile states from where the American
military can easily launch operations against Iran.
Despite its strong oil-driven ties with Washington now
militarily present all over Iran, Baku's coming along
with Iran in what Kharrazi described as both sides'
"strong determination to remove irritants" from their
bilateral relations symbolically demonstrated potential
ability of Iran to deal with the growing American
menace. Dr Hooman Peimani works as an
independent consultant with international organizations
in Geneva and does research in international
relations.
(©2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd.
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