U.S. Plan for a 'New Silk Road' Faces a Big Speed Bump: Iran
Atlantic Monthly in collaboration with Eurasianet.org / Joshua Kucera
25-Nov-2011 (2 comments)

 "there are currently no elements of the New Silk Road strategy that involve Iran."

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ayatoilet1

Everything Excluding Iran...

by ayatoilet1 on Fri Nov 25, 2011 06:19 AM PST

I don't understand, wouldn't just be easier to topple the regime in Tehran - than to work so hard at excluding Iran from everything? There is a cost - a significant cost - to avoiding Iran; AND; the project(s) are likely sub-optimal, inefficient, etc. The first step in promoting prosperity in Central Asia is to actually transform Iran, and then have Iran/Iranians do the hard work of transforming the region ...Iran has the money, the man power, the resources etc.


Balatarin
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vildemose

"    "Iran's response

by vildemose on Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:41 PM PST

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"Iran's response to the New Silk Road strategy has thus far been relatively muted. Tehran understands that it is being shut out of the region, but is hamstrung by its ties to Russia and its hostility to the United States, said Alex Vatanka, an Iran expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. "If you're a diplomat in the Foreign Ministry in Tehran and you see the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan going to Turkey for a meeting about the future of security cooperation in Afghanistan, that was seen as a major defeat as the Iranians, and it should be - that tells you how the Iranians have shot themselves in the foot by isolating themselves with their position on the United States."

But Iran also is reluctant to build close ties with its neighbors in Central Asia for fear of alienating Russia, Vatanka added. "Iran feels that [the former Soviet republics] are Russia's back yard. Iran needs Russia, it can't antagonize Russia," he said. "They have problems elsewhere on the international scene where they feel Russia could give them a helping hand."

Even where its interests might be directly counter to Russia's, for example on the controversial question of delimiting the borders of the oil-rich Caspian Sea, Iran is afraid to challenge Russia, Vatanka said."


 

 "It is the chain of communicat­ion, not the means of production­, that determines a social process."

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