Into the US-NATO Plot for South Caucasus

In the last few days, the European Union and the United States met in Brussels within the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), agreeing on a new decision around putting in place a new plan for the invasion and illegal interference in the South Caucasus region (the region encompassing Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan bordering Iran and Turkey from the south and Russia from the north). They stated that they want to intervene in this sensitive region, and from what has become apparent, they declared bringing “peace” to the region as one of their goals.

This type of behavior indicates that this group, which is not committed to its deadlines, only wants to pave the way to create tension in sensitive parts of the world and to obtain a pretext for military presence at the expense of this region’s security and the independence of its states.

The sensitivity of the South Caucasus region is not veiled from anyone, and the honorable history of the Islamic Republic of Iran shows that it has always been an important pillar in maintaining security and peace in this region while preserving the rights and particularities of nearby states.

NATO’s new plan and its formation are based on the US initiative and require the help of some mediators in the region.

It is worth noting that nearly two years ago, an initiative that holds the same direction, but under a different guise, was suggested. In that initiative, they wanted to create a more elegant facade, which when unveiled, revealed many highly harmful details when they were attempting to claim to be facilitating communication to transfer energy between South Caucasus nations.

The execution of such a strategy would not only lead to significant and strategically disruptive outcomes at the expense of the region’s nations but also result in the erosion of their historical borders and the emergence of internal conflicts. These developments will be exploited by Western powers, led by the United States of America, as a pretext for intervening in the region. Consequently, it would exacerbate existing tensions among neighboring states by fueling the fire raging between the South Caucasus states, paving the way for the expansionist agendas of Western powers under the guise of conflict resolution.

It should be noted that the Americans, as the highest decision-makers in NATO, aimed to deploy the forces of this organization in southern Russia or northern Iran to obtain energy resources in the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. Since its inception, this plan has been thwarted, thanks to the vigilant stance of the holy Islamic Republic and its steadfast opposition to such a scheme.

Initially, some regional supporters [of the US and NATO] backed this plan, but the Islamic Republic of Iran opposed it, and only Iran stood up to this plan with wisdom and authority. Their desire, both past and present, remains fixed on replicating the maneuvers witnessed in the Baltic Sea and Ukraine within the crucial corridor spanning northern Iran and southern Russia. This pursuit will complete NATO’s broad and comprehensive eastward expansion. There are quite a few research centers and decision-making centers that serve the West’s illegitimate interests, especially the centers that revealed their intentions after the failure of this plan, which confirmed this claim.

The available evidence reveals that the US is the head of every global sin and that the ruling Crusader Zionist capitalists in that country are looking for a specific plan to reformulate their global hegemony in the midst of the new circumstances brought upon by polarization since the Second World War. This includes demands for a unipolar world led by the United States by George Bush Senior in 1991, the multipolar world that the Chinese representative in the United Nations suggested in 1999, the establishment of a new Eastern-polar world by China and Russia in 2022, which was announced by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and the formulation of a real alliance of anti-Western states in line with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS. The Axis of Resistance, which is centered around the Islamic Republic of Iran and the participation of the revolutionary countries in West Asia in this Axis, has had a special influence on the alliance.

Therefore, a US official recently said that the West must break the strategic monopoly over the Strait of Hormuz and the Baltic Sea in the future of its energy supplies, and this could only be accomplished through the South Caucasus.

On the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of Germany told then-Soviet officials (Mikhail Gorbachev and Eduard Shevardnadze) during the time of the collapse of the Berlin Wall that NATO would not make a one-centimeter advance into this hypothetical line agreed upon after the Cold War. However,  in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world saw NATO, a comprehensive Western military alliance centered around the United States, make European countries one after the other join the alliance. By making threats against neutral countries that have no reason to be hostile to Russia on the one hand, and by tempting with European Union membership on the other, NATO annexed these countries until it reached Ukraine, where Putin stood up to the alliance.

After a serious conflict between Russia and the West, NATO gradually turned to the second alternative, (of eastward expansion), which is the South Caucasus. Putin had said before the Ukraine incident that the borders of the South Caucasus were the same as those that were drawn during the era of the former Soviet Union, but the sharp confrontation between Russia and the West in Ukraine gradually led to a reduction in the intensity of the Russian government’s tone in preserving its position on the South Caucasus. Even during the past years, the matter reached a stage where circles in the United States and Turkey said that Iran was the only nation opposing the establishment of the Zangezur corridor.

Yes, this is how Iran stopped this huge conspiracy with the necessary skill and authority.

One international affairs professor at Tbilisi University stated some time ago that the fear lies in Russia weakening in the South Caucasus and NATO becoming a neighbor to Iran. Now, Iran’s long and valuable experiences show that countries seeking to exploit Iran will barge in through the window if they are pushed out the door. Nonetheless, just as we stood against the opening of the Zangezur corridor, we will stand against any other plan seeking a similar result, and we still believe that the 3+3 format is the best solution to the future problems of the South Caucasus.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long history of deep relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the independence of these two neighboring countries and the preservation of their territorial integrity is extremely important to us.

We issue a clear warning to countries that are not familiar with Iran yet that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not allow such moves to be made by any nation, organization, or alliance that intends to harm Iran’s security. We will defend with full vigilance and authority the integrity of its territory and its security. It must be emphasized that the South Caucasus is an important part of Iran’s security zone, which Iran will always defend, along with the security, independence, and territorial integrity of all countries in this region. This decision taken by the European Union, NATO, and the US in Brussels will not see the light of day in any case.

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.