Tehran, IRNA – The security situation in Southern Caucasus, a region located to Iran’s northwest, is getting complicated by the day with statements by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev fueling the already simmering tensions between regional countries.
Aliyev’s critical remarks about a recent military drill by Iran along its northwestern borders came following a visit by Armenian president Nikol Pashinyan to Tehran and after Pashinyan and Aliyev met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian resort of Sochi.
The remarks along with a fresh bout of violence on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia in September showed that tensions in the region have not eased despite a promising ceasefire deal reached in November 2020 following a 44-day war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The situation has also affected bilateral ties between Iran and Azerbaijan, causing political analysts to closely monitor the policies and stances adopted by officials on the two sides of the Aras River.
Experts wonder why the two countries have been at odds over how to maintain the political balance in Southern Caucasus. Why Azerbaijan is trying to undermine Iran’s geopolitical role in the region and why Azerbaijani officials are seeking to change the strategic equations in the region.
The fact is that international developments in recent years have caused a shift of roles in Southern Caucasus as Iran, along with Turkey and Russia, have become the main actors in geopolitical equations in the region.
However, Azerbaijan is apparently not content with Iran’s role as a balancer in Southern Caucasus as Baku tries to undermine Iran’s role in the area. That has intensified following Azerbaijan’s victory in 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war which led to the eviction of pro-Armenian forces from Azerbaijani territories.
That has come despite the fact that Iran and Azerbaijan have deepened their economic and energy ties in recent years as a sign that the two countries that share close cultural and religious affinities could also boost their political ties.
Iran, on the other side, has resisted any move by Azerbaijan to set up a special corridor to its exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenian territories bordering Iran.
That has intensified tensions in the region and led to a clear confrontation between Iran and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s continued insistence on such demands, a policy which is clearly backed by Turkiye, would further escalate the security situation in Southern Caucasus.
Experts believe a win-win solution to current conundrum in the region would be for Baku to try to revive the regional status quo and to avoid seeking a new geopolitical equation in the area.
Source: Islamic Republic News Agency – IRNA
