4. New Players
4.3. Iran
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The American intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq put the Central Asia on the global strategy map and raised tensions in this region. A governing principle of U.S.
policy has been its determination, as part of the broader policy of dual containment of Iran, to obstruct Central Asia's rapprochement with Iran. Geo- strategic and geo-economic priorities for USA is developing east-west energy and transportation process (Trans Caspian project), restrain Iran ―and promoting American business interest and strategic plans‖146
U.S. attitude toward Iran is a bit different than European approach. Europe doesn‘t perceive Iran as a big threat for world stability. Relations between Europe and Iran are much more friendly than those between Iran and the U.S.. To decrease the cost of planning gas infrastructure from CAS that would bypass Russia it would be more reasonable to build pipeline on the ground rather than under the Caspian Sea. The only possible way to do it is to locate construction on the territory of Iran. Vehement opposition against this idea from American side renders this plan unreal. This difference of opinions between Europe and USA is not regarded as an open conflict, but in reality it is a problem for European side.
4.3. Iran
Iran is essentially concerned with fostering relations with Muslim republics in Central Asia147. Iran can help by providing alternative routes for energy and foreign trade. For these landlocked states it is a big chance to expand the existing transport routes across Iran to Gulf coast.
146 Gabriela Rasuly, and Julia Katyschnig, Central Asia on display, Wien: Lit ,Austria, 2004, p.457
147 Mohiaddin Mesbahi, Central Asia and the Caucasus after the Soviet Union , Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 1994, p.253.
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Iran is the world‘s second148 largest owner of proven natural gas reserves. Since the disintegration of Soviet Union, Iran has become an important actor vying for the control of the energy resources in Central Asia. Because it‘s natural recourses, its strategic location, Iran inevitably plays an important role in the region, and even in the global scale. It is a natural transit link and shortest route between the Central Asia, Caspian Sea states and Europe.
The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran looked at the independence of Turkmenistan as creating new opportunities for its own gas industry. Like the Russians, the Iranians believed that the potential synergies between their country and Turkmenistan could help promote the expansion of their role as a global gas provider.
The construction of a pipeline linking the Kricheh (Korpedzhe) gas deposit in western Turkmenistan to Kurt-Kui in northern Iran was intended to be the first step in creating a long-lasting energy partnership between the two countries.
Iranian officials viewed the collapse of the Soviet Union as an opportunity for strong geopolitical realignments in the region, and they worked hard to ensure that Teheran would be at the center of them149. They recognized that Turkey had competing views of what these geopolitical alignments might entail, but Iranian officials believed that Turkmenistan's gas created an opportunity for the two countries to work in concert.
In spite of this potential for cooperation, it has to be noted that Iran is in no way a dominant player in the region. Political international isolation, inspired by the USA, is the biggest obstacle to make room for Iran in the region. USA and its allies perceive Iran as a serious threat to international security and impede all Iranian effort to improve its trade relations with Europe and Central Asian states. That is the why project to build gas pipeline from CAS through Iran and forward to Europe is effectively torpedoed by USA administration.
148Mehdi Amineh Parvizi and Houweling Henk, Central Eurasia in global politics, Boston : Brill, 2005,p.86.
149 Martha Brill Olcott "International Gas Trade in Central Asia: Turkmenistan, Iran, Russia and Afghanistan"
http://www.rice.edu/energy/publications/docs/GAS_InternationalGasTradeinCentralAsia.pdf, access July 15 2011.
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Despite the US policy of ―containment‖150 of Iran, the country seeks to enhance its ties in Central Asia through bilateral accords on pipelines and the construction of transportation routes, railways, air travel, roads to ports like Bandar Abbas. Iran also promotes multilateral fora, like the Muslim Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO151). Iran also particularly cultivates Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan on pipelines and transport networks. According to Shirren Hunter, ―The best and most extensive relations are between Iran and Turkmenistan‖152. These countries favor friendly relations owing to the length of their common borders, which were drawn under Stalin dictatorship.
Iran's options are limited to economic penetration and support or to attempts to expand its cultural-ideological influence. Economic weakness holds it back from a major role in Central Asia. Although Iran sponsors the Central Asian states in the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and has the major goal of reestablishing the medieval Silk Road from the Middle East to China, it cannot offer the real support these states need. However ―Iran has subsequently had some success in projective a more positive image in the region‖153
150Mitchell, John, Beck Peter and Michael Grubb , The new geopolitics of energy, London : RIIA ,1996, p.180.
151Mohiaddin Mesbahi, Central Asia and the Caucasus after the Soviet Union , Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 1994, p. 254.
152 Shirren Hunter ,Central Asia since independence, Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 1996, p. 134.
153Rasuly Paleczek and Julia Katyschnig, Central Asia on display, Wien: Lit , 2004, p. 456.