U.S. INTERVENTION IN THE CAUCASUS

Voice of Justice (Iran)
[Late June 2005]

http://www.irib.ir/worldservice/englishRADIO/political/caucsaus.htm

Of late the U.S. has begun to intervene openly in the Southern Caucasus, favoring certain political parties jostling for power and even warning the Republic of Georgia against signing an energy pact with Russia. Last month, Georgia and Russia’s Prome Gas Company had agreed to sign an accord for supply of gas that will also be extended to another Caucasus state, the Republic of Armenia. But the U.S. representative in the Caspian Sea area, Steven Mann, in his meddling remarks, spoke against the said accord, an issue which angered officials in both Tbilisi and Moscow. Earlier this year the U.S. State Department had accused Georgia of being indifferent to the human trafficking in the region. In another interventionist remark, the Pentagon accused the republic of Azerbaijan of violating freedom of thought and expression and inattention to the issue of political prisoners. Elections are due in Azerbaijan on October 15 and the U.S. has bolstered its support for parties opposing the Baku government. The U.S. State Department has invited the leaders of the Mosawaat and People’s Parties of the Republic of Azerbaijan to visit the United States. It has even sanctioned an amount of 47 million dollars for creating hurdles in forming a regional security system in the Caucasus.

Although the U.S. has regularly intervened in the Caucasus after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, this meddling has increased following the mysterious attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. At the same time, the U.S. military presence has increased in the region. Since February 2002, U.S. forces have been stationed in the Pankisi Valley of Georgia under the pretext of fighting al-Qaeda terrorists, but not even a single terrorist has been apprehended. The U.S. objective in meddling in the Southern Caucasus is to prevent the shaping of a collective regional security system. U.S. officials are well aware that if a regional security system is formed, the ground for their interventions will be removed. As part of its sinister plan the U.S. is trying to obstruct work on the Caspian Sea legal regime, to which the Islamic of Iran and two Central Asian states are also a party. The U.S. seeks to control oil and gas exploration in the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus in order to keep out Iran and Russia, which are the two major regional powers. As a result of US policies, the Republic of Azerbaijan has greatly suffered. The economically unfeasible American plan to transport Azeri oil from Baku to the Turkish port of Jayhan through Georgia has entailed a huge burden for the Republic of Azerbaijan, for the past decade when the shortest and most secure route for transfer of Caspian oil to world markets.

The American game is to restrict Russia’s traditional influence in the Caucasus by increasing military presence in the area. This has complicated the situation and created instability in the Southern Caucasus republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. The U.S. has no intention of resolving the chronic crises in the region such as that of Qarabagh and Abkhazia, and merely wants to procrastinate the problems in order to justify its presence and intervention. However, the public opinion in the Caucasus is not in favor of the U.S., especially in view of the events in Iran [NOTE: Surely a typo for Iraq? --H.A.] and the military occupation of that country. The regional people demand decisive and independent policies against U.S. ambition in order to check Washington’s ambitious designs but the weak structure of political parties coupled with traditionally despotic rule has confused the situation and made the Southern Caucasus an easy target of American intervention.