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IRAN CRISIS STIRS TENSIONS IN EX-SOVIET UNION CAUCASUS
China Post
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/afp/2012/03/03/333472/Iran-crisis.htm
March 2 2012
Taiwan
TBILISI, Georgia -- Thwarted attacks on Israelis in Tbilisi and Baku.
Friction between Azerbaijan and its giant neighbor Iran. Fears of a
new war over the conflict-bloodied region of Nagorny Karabakh.
As warnings grow of a possible Israeli strike against Iran, the
three small south Caucasus ex-Soviet states have become increasingly
nervous that open conflict could throw their troubled region into
even deeper turmoil.
"As always when relations between the greater powers around the
Caucasus are in turmoil, the Caucasus is affected," said Svante
Cornell, research director at the Stockholm-based Central Asia-Caucasus
Institute.
Georgian police in February said they defused a bomb near the Israeli
embassy in Tbilisi, part of a series of attack plots that Israel
blamed on Iran.
Mainly Muslim but officially secular Azerbaijan has arrested several
people over the past two months accused of plotting to attack Israelis
in Baku on behalf of Iran and the Islamic radical group Hezbollah.
The alleged plots have provoked speculation in the region that Iran
and Israel are acting out a covert conflict on the Islamic republic's
borders, deploying spies and recruiting locals as proxies.
The south Caucasus had long been a battleground for influence between
Iran, Russia and Turkey, but the fall of the Soviet Union enabled the
U.S. and Europe to forge new allegiances where Moscow had dominated
for decades.
Criticism of Tehran has escalated in Azerbaijan in recent months,
with allegations that Iranians have commissioned bombers, sponsored
Muslim extremists and staged cyber-attacks on state websites.
"Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Iran has been trying to export
Islamic revolution into Azerbaijan. Iran wants to get its hands on
Azerbaijan," Vafa Guluzade, a former Azerbaijani presidential foreign
policy adviser, told AFP in Baku.
From: A. Papazian
China Post
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/afp/2012/03/03/333472/Iran-crisis.htm
March 2 2012
Taiwan
TBILISI, Georgia -- Thwarted attacks on Israelis in Tbilisi and Baku.
Friction between Azerbaijan and its giant neighbor Iran. Fears of a
new war over the conflict-bloodied region of Nagorny Karabakh.
As warnings grow of a possible Israeli strike against Iran, the
three small south Caucasus ex-Soviet states have become increasingly
nervous that open conflict could throw their troubled region into
even deeper turmoil.
"As always when relations between the greater powers around the
Caucasus are in turmoil, the Caucasus is affected," said Svante
Cornell, research director at the Stockholm-based Central Asia-Caucasus
Institute.
Georgian police in February said they defused a bomb near the Israeli
embassy in Tbilisi, part of a series of attack plots that Israel
blamed on Iran.
Mainly Muslim but officially secular Azerbaijan has arrested several
people over the past two months accused of plotting to attack Israelis
in Baku on behalf of Iran and the Islamic radical group Hezbollah.
The alleged plots have provoked speculation in the region that Iran
and Israel are acting out a covert conflict on the Islamic republic's
borders, deploying spies and recruiting locals as proxies.
The south Caucasus had long been a battleground for influence between
Iran, Russia and Turkey, but the fall of the Soviet Union enabled the
U.S. and Europe to forge new allegiances where Moscow had dominated
for decades.
Criticism of Tehran has escalated in Azerbaijan in recent months,
with allegations that Iranians have commissioned bombers, sponsored
Muslim extremists and staged cyber-attacks on state websites.
"Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Iran has been trying to export
Islamic revolution into Azerbaijan. Iran wants to get its hands on
Azerbaijan," Vafa Guluzade, a former Azerbaijani presidential foreign
policy adviser, told AFP in Baku.
From: A. Papazian