Military escalation around Iran threates with involvement of whole Central Asia

PanARMENIAN.Net - In a timely decision, Azerbaijan recently (mid-March) granted NATO the permission to use two of its military bases and an airport to "back up its peace-keeping operation in Afghanistan" including support for NATO's "supply route to Afghanistan". NATO's special envoy Robert Simmons insists that the agreement has nothing to do with U.S. plans to wage aerial bombardments on Iran.



Media sources in Baku have intimated that this timely agreement is directly related to ongoing U.S.-Israeli-NATO war plans. Its timing coincides with U.S. naval deployments and war games in the Persian Gulf.



The airport and two military bases are slated to be "modernized to meet NATO standards". Washington has confirmed in this regard that it would "support the modernization of a military airport in the framework of the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) signed between Azerbaijan and NATO.



Azerbaijan is also strategic in view of its maritime border with Iran in the Caspian sea. In this regard, the U.S. Navy is involved in supporting the Azeri Navy, in the area of training. There is also an agreement to provide U.S. support to refurbish Azeri warships in the Caspian sea.



The U.S. sponsored Caspian Guard Initiative was launched in 2003 to "coordinate activities in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan with those of U.S. Central Command and other U.S. government agencies to enhance Caspian security." The initiative was implemented under the cover of preventing narcotics trafficking and counter- terrorism, Its ultimate objective, however, is to provide USCENTCOM with a strategic naval corridor in the Caspian sea basin.



The U.S. has also participated in joint Naval exercises with the Azeri Army's 641st Special Warfare Naval Unit, headquartered at the Azeri Naval Station outside Baku.



More generally, both the U.S. and NATO are in the process of deepening their military cooperation with Azerbaijan. In recent developments, military-political consultations between the U.S. and Azerbaijan are scheduled to be held in Washington in the second half of April, according to a U.S. Embassy source in Baku.



The timing of these consultations is crucial. They coincide chronologically with a process of advanced military planning. Military escalation around Iran threates with involvement of whole Central Asia



Azerbaijan could be the object of retaliatory strikes by Iran, if the country's military bases are used by NATO-U.S. forces as a launch pad for waging war on Iran.



Media sources in Baku have suggested that retaliatory bombings by Iran could include Azeri oil fields and oil and gas pipelines. The strategic Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, which links the Caspian Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean could also be a target. The Baku Ceyan pipeline is controlled by an Anglo-American consortium led by British Petroleum (BP), Global Research reports.