The southern caucasus: a struggle for

Iranian-Russian Relations and

Iran’s Policy Toward the Region

The Southern Caucasus is an oil- and gas-rich region with a strategic location that creates bril-

liant prospects for the local nations to become rich and prosperous. However, the Caucasus belongs to

“the areas of the greatest insecurity in today’s world, which lie along an arc from the Balkans through

the Middle East to Central Asia.”

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 Unfortunately, the Southern Caucasus is the arena of a grueling

struggle between the global and regional powers for geopolitical influence and for control over Cas-

pian energy resources, as well as over the energy transportation routes. And Iran is engaged in this

rivalry.

It is well known that, during the past three centuries, the main threat to Iran’s security and ter-

ritorial integrity has come from the North—from imperial Russia and later from the Soviet Union.

Fortunately, the local states of the Southern Caucasus—Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia—emerged

as independent countries after the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. And now these states form a “buffer

zone” between Iran and Russia.

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 Iran clearly understands that the existence of such a buffer zone is

vital for the nation’s security because of Russia’s strong imperialistic ambitions and Moscow’s nos-

talgia for the glorious days of the Red Empire. So Iran strongly supports the independence of all three

states. On the other hand, the existence of the South Caucasian countries creates new opportunities

and challenges for Iran’s foreign and security policy.

We think that Tehran’s strategy toward the Southern Caucasus originates from Iran’s specific

position in global affairs, especially from the nation’s confrontational relations with the West (U.S.).

Iran’s relations with the U.S., as the backbone of Tehran’s strategic foreign and security policy, are

the driving force behind Tehran’s behavior at the global and regional levels, including in the Southern

10

 Ph. Stephens, “A Political Awakening That Recasts the Global Landscape,” The Financial Express, 21 July, 2007,

available at [http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com].

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 See: A. Ramezanzadeh, “Iran’s Role as Mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh Crisis,” in: Contested Borders in the

Caucasus, ed. by B. Coppieters, Brussels, 1998, available at [http://poli.vub.ac.be/publi/ContBorders/eng/ch0701.htm].

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