Mixed "Iran calls" from Baku to Washington

A group of top Azeri emissaries - the leadership of Center for Strategic Studies under the Azeri President, along with diplomats and pro-government politicians, are visiting Washington DC, to "voice the regional threat by Iran and other neighbors," just a few months before the country heads towards presidential elections.

"We're here to let the American people know about Iran's increasing pressure on Azerbaijan:

Tehran wants to interfere into our foreign policy and it bothers us. We want the US -- our strategic partner -- at least, to know about these processes and support us," Asim Mollazade, a member of the delegation, told TURAN's Washington DC correspondent, during the CSIS discussion on "Iran-Azerbaijan relations and Strategic Competition in the Caucasus", on Monday, April 29.

When asked "how much of Iranian-Azerbaijani tensions is about the electoral politics in both countries," Mollazade said "no, no, no: these all started long before the election year as Iran's pro-Armenian and pro-Russian policies in the region very much bother us."

Yet, the event failed to answer the question what kind of support the Azeri government seeks from Washington and how serious do they sound with the ongoing official campaign in Baku against the US-backed democratic institutions, right a few month before the presidential election.

Meanwhile, speaking at the event, Farhad Mammadov, Director of the Center for Strategic Studies, said that Iran-Azerbaijani relations have been characterized by rising tensions in recent years as Tehran sees Azerbaijani secularism and culture - "as a threat, yet internal affairs will not be disrupted".

For Sergey Markedonov, a visiting fellow at CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, "the transfer of Middle East issues to the Caucasus by Iran is a threat to the region."

Many aspects of the Iran role "are shaped by desire to be a regional power," he added. "Tehran's policy toward the Caucasus region is a blend of pragmatism and revolutionary ideas".

In the meantime, some Washington analysts, such as Alex Vatanka from the Middle East Institute, believe that the Iranian-Azerbaijani relations are characterized by "ups and downs," and this is something unlikely to change in the future...

Alakbar Raufoglu

Washington, DC