Azerbaijani media reports that Senior Research Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Policy, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, Ariel Cohen, gave testimony before the Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia, Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives.
According to him the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI or Iran), has emerged as a major anti–status quo actor in the Middle East, threatening American Sunni Arab allies along the so-called Shi’a Crescent from Lebanon, via Syria and Iraq, to the Persian Gulf. Iran’s implacable hatred of Israel and its threats to wipe the Jewish State off the map are widely reported. What is less well known is the destabilizing influence of the Islamic Republic in the South Caucasus.
“The United States has worked hard over the last twenty years to encourage development of this strategically important region. American interests in the South Caucasus include security, energy and economic development, and democratization. Thus far, our track record in achieving these goals is decidedly mixed. Since the collapse of the USSR, Washington has sought to prevent Russia and Iran from re-establishing dominance in this region, especially as the importance of Caspian energy resources – oil and gas – is increasing. “Given that the region involves the Russians, Iranians and Turks, it is inevitable that the global power [the U.S. – A.C.] would have an interest as well,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked during her visit to the region in July 2010. The U.S. long-term strategy has been to ensure the independence of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, allowing for markets to develop and the rule of law to thrive, while sustaining democratization and promoting regional integration.[1] Since the era of bipartisanship on South Caucasus during the Clinton and Bush Administrations, there is a reversal in U.S. attention to and achievements of these policy goals. The Qods (or “Jerusalem”) Force, an Iranian elite paramilitary organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is exporting the Islamic revolution by fostering militant Shiite movements, creating deterrence and retaliatory networks, and destabilizing unfriendly regimes. Officially, the Qods Force is a part of the IRGC’s five known branches, alongside the ground forces, the navy, the air force (in parallel with the regular tri-services), and the brutish Basij street militia. In reality, the Force enjoys a great degree of autonomy and is directed by the Supreme Leader. Iranian student activists compared IRGC to the Soviet KGB and the Nazi SS, calling it “the agent of order for a harsh ideological regime and its agent of oppression”.
