IRAN’S ARMENIAN CONNECTION
NowLebanon
April 17 2012
Emanuele Ottolenghi , The Weekly Standard, April 17, 2012
As the United States, the European Union, and western allies expand
efforts to squeeze Iran through crippling sanctions, Tehran is working
to create loopholes to mitigate the impact. Often, the Iranians
have used third countries for this purpose. From the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) to Germany, Iran established networks of businesses and
front companies designed to assist and finance the regime’s illicit
procurement activities. But the UAE and Germany, alongside other
erstwhile partners of Iran, have since joined the sanctions’ effort,
pushing Iran out of their financial systems and scaling down on trade.
Accordingly, Iran has sought to expand its activities in countries
where a combination of geostrategic and domestic factors make Iran’s
presence acceptable to local authorities, while staying under the
radar of Iran’s enemies. Armenia is fast becoming a new transit point
for the Islamic Republic’s activities and one that may prove critical
in the regime’s efforts to fend off sanctions as it marches toward
a nuclear weapons program.
Armenia lends itself well to Iranian circumvention of sanctions: for
instance, it ranks 129 of 183 countries surveyed by the 2011 Global
Corruption Index. Yerevan’s extensive trade relations with Russia make
it a convenient transit point for merchandise that can benefit from
a lax approach to export controls by customs and border authorities.
Besides, Armenia is next door to Iran and due to the awkward
combination of its geography and its history, it does not have much
trade with its other neighbors.
Armenia shares borders with Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. The
border with Turkey is closed, on account of Turkey’s unwillingness
to recognize the Armenian genocide. The one with Azerbaijan border
is closed because of the ongoing conflict with Armenia over disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh. And the border with Georgia is difficult to traverse
given the adverse geography and weather conditions. Moreover, since
Georgia was invaded in 2008 by Russia, a key Armenian trade partner,
there are political reasons for the Armenians and Georgians alike to
seek alternative trade routes.
As the Yerevan-based think tank Civilitas Foundation put it in a recent
report, “Armenia’s only reliable access to the world was through Iran.”
For Armenia, Iran’s presence is a boost to its small economy.
Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense
of Democracies and author of The Pasdaran: Inside Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guards.
The above article was published in weeklystandard.com on April 16th,
2012 (1:13 p.m.).