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Iran
expands its horizons
By Hooman Peimani
Uzbek and Tajik leaders visiting Tehran, as well as their Afghan counterpart,
have signed two separate trilateral transport agreements with Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami even as the United States increases pressure to isolate Iran
and the three Western Asian countries are on friendly terms with Washington.
Connecting land-locked Central Asian countries to international transit routes
via Iran is not a new plan. In fact, both sides have taken measures to create
land links via roads and railroads since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.
Central Asia is now connected to Iran's highway and rail networks via
Turkmenistan, the only Central Asian country with a long common border (about
900 kilometers) with Iran. Because of its geographical location and its
developed transportation infrastructure, the latter offers Central Asian
countries land and sea routes to international markets, including those of
Europe and Asia.
However, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan want to access Iran by a shorter land link
through Afghanistan, which shares borders with those countries to the north and
with Iran to the west. Civil war in Afghanistan made this plan out of the
question prior to the Taliban's fall. This development, which ended two decades
of war in that country, removed the barrier to embarking on such plan, although
Afghanistan has yet to achieve long-term peace and stability.
In the post-Taliban era, Iran has implemented projects to improve Afghanistan's
land routes. As made in the January 2002 Tokyo conference on Afghanistan's
reconstruction, Iran's commitment towards this endeavor has been a major
incentive for such projects. Another one has been Tehran's appreciation of its
western neighbor as a potential land link between Iran and Central Asia and
China, a country with a short border (76 kilometers) with Afghanistan.
Iran wants to facilitate trade with them, while seeking to establish itself as
the main trade route or a main trade route, in the case of China, to
international markets. This is especially important within the context of
Iran's economic ties with China, whose fast-growing economy and its 1.3
billion-strong domestic market make it a very attractive economic partner for
the Iranians. China's expanding international trade could generate billions of
dollars in transit routes for them, while uplifting their regional and
international status and political influence.
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have expressed their hope that through Iran their
countries will become part of a north-south corridor agreement connecting
Europe to Asia for trade. In comparison to the existing main route via the Suez
Canal, this new transit route, which began its operation last year, provides a
much shorter, faster and less expensive alternative route for European-Asian
trade via Russia, Iran and India. It still operates at a small-scale, but many
countries have expressed an interest in being connected to it for its expected
eventual success in becoming the major Asian-European trade route. Eventually,
Iran also hopes to link China to this transit route through Afghanistan.
As part of the mentioned plans, Iran's road construction projects in
Afghanistan include the 125-kilometer Dogharun-Herat highway connecting Iran's
Khorassan province to its neighboring Herat province in Afghanistan and the
Milak bridge between Iran and Nimruz province, in addition to various road
construction projects in Herat. Iranian Minister of Roads and Transport Ahmad
Khorram stated earlier in this month that his country had allocated US$43
million for the former and $3-4 million for the latter. He also announced a
plan to build a rail link between Khorassan's Torbat Heidarieh and
Afghanistan's Sangan and Herat.
Signed in Tehran on June 18, the two separate trilateral agreements provide to
construct land routes for an expected increase in regional trade and for
Central Asia's international trade. Accordingly, Iran would provide access to
international routes, while Afghanistan would connect Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
to Iran. Towards that end, Afghan President Hamid Karazi, Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami and Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed a memorandum of
understanding to "complete, expand and reconstruct the routes linking Iran,
Uzbekistan and Afghanistan". The signatories have agreed to set up a joint
coordinating council to implement the agreement.
The Afghan and Iranian presidents also signed an agreement with their Tajik
counterpart, Imamali Rahmanov, to connect Tajikistan to Iran via Afghanistan.
During a press conference in its aftermath, the three presidents stressed both
the economic significance and the political importance of the agreement, which,
according to Rahmanov, would "give [a] significant boost to inter-regional
cooperation". Karzai, whose country could benefit a lot as the link between
Iran and Tajikistan, viewed trilateral cooperation among the three
Persian-speaking countries with other commonalties such as religion and culture
as natural as he anticipated immense economic benefits and security in the
region, "especially in Afghanistan". Khatami echoed that view as he saw the
agreement not only in the context of boosting ties among the signatories, but
also as a means to "presage peace and stability in the region".
Although they suffer from different economic problems and have different
expectations, all the signatories would greatly benefit from expanding trade in
their region, which the aforementioned agreements could encourage. The latter
have also the potential to expand significantly regional cooperation to deal
with common concerns, including peace and security, two major prerequisites for
economic prosperity for the entire West Asia region. However, these are all
pending the actual implementation of the agreements, for which specific dates
are yet to be announced. Nevertheless, given the American government's apparent
efforts to isolate Iran, the sheer conclusion of the two trilateral agreements
should be a reason for jubilation in Tehran, which is still withstanding
Washington's mounting pressure.
Dr Hooman Peimani works as an independent consultant with international
organizations in Geneva and does research in international relations.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact
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