“Except Iran”

15 June 2011 | 14:51 Code : 13770 Middle East.

Interview with Hassan Beheshtipour on Washington’s policy in Caucasia and the Caspian Sea region

“The US is ready to share its experience with Azerbaijan in order to protect energy infrastructure in the Caspian Sea,” according to Washington’s ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza (link). Such remarks come across as undesirable for Iranians who eye the US’ active role in the Caspian Sea with suspicion. Iranian Diplomacy interviewed Hassan Beheshtipour, international affairs’ analyst, on the Iran-US-Azerbaijan triangle in the Caspian region.

IRD: How do you characterize Washington’s policy in Caucasia and the Caspian Sea region? Is it ‘competition’ against or ‘marginalization’ of Iran?

HB: I think Washington’s Caucasia and Caspian region policy can be called the ‘except Iran’ policy. Since its active presence in this region following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States has strained to exclude Iran from all transportation and energy projects. Oil and gas pipelines (such as the Baku-Tbilsi-Ceyhan) designed to transfer Caucasus energy to Europe simply circumvent Iran. Washington has proven unashamed in marginalizing Iran through economic levers. Regional states have coped with these pressures as Western energy giants are the main investors in energy projects in the Caspian region. So it is hard to label the situation as competition; it is more of a serious challenge. Quite unreasonably, the Americans are trying to shut the door on Iranians while in most cases, collaboration with Iran is significantly more efficient and cost-effective.

IRD: Washington’s ambassador to Baku has said that his country is ready to establish energy security in the Caspian Sea. How will Iran react to this proposal?

HB: There are no threats in the Caspian Sea to necessitate the US’ presence. What Washington is doing is portraying the Caspian Sea as an unstable region to justify its presence. This effort will fail, though. The seminal security pact, signed during the Baku Caspian Summit in 2010, rules out the intervention of extra-regional powers in security arrangements of the Caspian region for fighting against phenomena such as drug trafficking and terrorism. There is no disagreement between the five Caspian littoral states in this respect. As I said, I think US is trying to create an atmosphere of fear and suspicion to pave the way for its presence.

IRD: Could Iran pressure the Republic of Azerbaijan to scale down its friendly relations with Washington?

HB: This is not a reasonable move. Iran cannot pressure its independent neighbors on who to love and who to hate, and how much. Iran won’t behave in that way anyway, unless it feels a security threat coming from its neighbors. Despite rumors about the Baku hosting of American or Israeli military forces, they have not materialized so far. Baku appreciates Tehran’s and Moscow’s sensitivities, and avoids such jeopardizing actions and has already received warnings from its powerful neighbors about the consequences of such actions. Such news may be published in daily newspapers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, but what politicians of this country carry out as policy is quite different.