IRAN’S COVERT WAR WITH ISRAEL IN CASPIAN
United Press International
Aug 17, 2011
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 17 (UPI) — A senior Iranian general has warned
zerbaijan about getting too close to Israel, underlining fears in
Tehran that the Jewish state could use Iran’s northern neighbor to
launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel has been quietly building intelligence and military links
with oil rich Azerbaijan, a largely secular Muslim state, since the
collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago.
The Israelis sell significant amounts of weapons and unmanned aerial
vehicles to the government in Baku, on the Caspian Sea, as its
intelligence services dig in along the border with Iran.
That gives Israel a forward operating base to monitor Iran,
particularly its contentious nuclear program, which Jerusalem views
as a major existential threat.
Over the last two years, tensions have escalated as Azerbaijan has
become part of the shadowy intelligence war between Iran and Israel.
It has become even more important to Israel since its May 2010 rift
with former ally Turkey, which also borders Iran.
GALLERY: National Army Day in Iran
Even so, the unusually aggressive outburst by Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi,
chief of Iran’s armed forces Joint Staff Command, Aug. 9 struck a
particularly jarring note and brought into sharp focus a little-known
aspect of Israel’s deepening intelligence war with Iran.
It also reflected Tehran’s growing alarm at Israel’s penetration of
Iran’s northern neighbor.
In what was perceived as thinly veiled threat, Firouzabadi accused
Baku of mistreating religious Shiites in southern Azerbaijan who
lean toward the Islamic Republic and allowing “Zionists” access to
Azerbaijani territory right on Iran’s doorstep.
“If this policy continues, it will end in darkness and it will not be
possible to suppress a revolt by the people of Aran,” or Azerbaijan,
the general declared in an interview with Iran’s semi-official Mehr
news agency.
Relations between Iran and Azerbaijan have been under strain in recent
years, largely through Iranian covert operations.
In 2007, Azerbaijan convicted 15 Iranians and Azeris for spying on
Israeli, U.S. and British interests, including oil facilities, for
Tehran and plotting to seize power.
In 2008, Azeri authorities, aided by Israel’s Mossad spy agency,
thwarted a plot involving operatives of Hezbollah, Iran’s powerful
Lebanese proxy, to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Baku.
That plot was intended to avenge the assassination of Hezbollah’s
iconic security chief, Imad Mughniyeh, in Damascus earlier that year.
Tehran blamed Mossad for that killing.
Firouzabadi’s statement jolted the Iranian leadership as much as it
did the Azeri government. Senior Iranian figures publicly chastised
the general and sought to distance Tehran from his remarks.
“It is important to note that the ongoing power struggle in Iran”
between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the clerical establishment
led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “has been having the
unintended effect of creating more political space for the military
leadership to assert its views,” the U.S. global security consultancy
Stratfor observed.
It said “the tense exchange between Tehran and Baku … underscores the
growing conflict of interests between the two neighbors as Azerbaijan
works on strengthening its relationship with the West.”
Around 85 percent of the population of Azerbaijan, ringed by key
regional players Iran, Turkey and Russia, is Shiite. That gives Tehran
the opportunity to make sectarian mischief in the Caucasus and the
energy-rich Caspian Basin.
However, Azerbaijan is overwhelmingly secular, except for the religious
conservatives on its southern flank. The government of President Ilham
Aliyev suspects Tehran is them to bolster its claims to Azerbaijan’s
Caspian energy reserves.
Iran fears Aliyev, backed by Israel and even the United States,
could support a revolt by its Azeris, who comprise about one-quarter
of the population.
So it supports Azerbaijan’s regional rival, Armenia, in its deadlocked
dispute with Baku over Nagorno-Karabakh, currently held by Armenia.
“Given that Azerbaijan’s relations with Iran have long been fraught,
the Azerbaijani government has not had any qualms in developing a
strategic relationship with Israel,” Stratfor noted.
Expanding that military and intelligence relationship to upgrade
Azerbaijan’s capabilities and develop a military industrial complex
there is one of Tehran’s greatest concerns.
Aliyev is looking toward Israel and NATO to help modernize its forces,
despite a U.S. arms embargo in place since 1992.
Israel is Azerbaijan’s fourth largest trading partner. The Jewish
state has also been making inroads into the former Soviet republics
of Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. It’s negotiating with Kazakhstan to
upgrade its military.