PrintApril 9, 2007
The Caucasus maneuver is working
The power calculus of nations is played out on a multi-dimensional chessboard, where the ability to constrain your rival's access to neighbors counts as a partial choke hold. Our media virtually ignores the good news that Iran's access to Russia is increasingly constrained, not least by favorable developments in the Caucasus.
What was meant to be another ploy by the Persian mullahs to show how impotent the West is in confronting Iran has actually demonstrated the effectiveness of the Coalition's geo-political maneuver to cut off the land bridge between the terror state and its nuclear sponsor. The AP (via SFGate.com) reports that Gen. Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general who is one of 15 Iranians banned from traveling abroad by the U.N. Security Council, visited Russia "without any difficulty."
Zolqadr said that his trip to Moscow showed "the ineffectiveness of the resolution." But we are left to wonder how exactly he traveled to Moscow since there is no mention that he flew direct to the Russian capital, which would necessitate processing through Russian customs, and presumably leaving a very public audit trail in violation of UN restrictions.
There is however, this little tidbit:
Zolqadr said he was invited by Russia's Border Guard authorities and that he discussed cooperation on border control and relief for natural disasters such as earthquakes. [...] Russia and Iran share a border across the Caspian Sea. [emphasis added]
So, did Zolqadr hop on a boat and sail several hundred miles across the Caspian Sea to link up with his Russian border guard buddies? His discussions on "border control" and "relief for natural disasters" would seem to indicate that lines of commerce between the two countries for large cargo shipments are essentially restricted to the Caspian Sea, since the land bridge between the two countries is now effectively in the Western and NATO camp.
In my view, the Persians have attempted to make a PR splash over what amounts to smuggling one man by boat across hundreds of miles of inland sea. In reality, it shows how the mullahs and their sponsors have been logistically and economically cornered in the Central Asia. And if the New Silk Road is developed as planned, things will only get worse for Iran and Putin.
