Geopolitical Explanation of the Iranian 11th government”™s Foreign Policy in the South Caucasus

Resumen

The strategic region of South Caucasus, including Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia is of considerable importance for Iran”™s foreign policy due to numerous reasons such as rich energy resources, neighborhood of the Russian Federation, which is known as a regional superpower, the presence of the USA and the Zionist regime, and active crises. Establishing effective relations with the countries of South Caucasus could play a decisive role in securing Iran”™s national interests. The present article sought to answer the fundamental question that how are the announced and implemented policies of the 11^th government of the Islamic Republic of Iran headed by Hassan Rouhani in the South Caucasus could be explained based on the theory of geopolitics. It hypothesized that Iran is implementing its foreign policy in the region using geopolitical components of its own as well as those belonged to the countries of the South Caucasus and the relationship of these components to each other such as proximity, common interests in the Caspian Sea, routes of energy pipelines, common culture and the presence of rival trans-regional and regional powers. Speeches and agendas of bilateral meetings between the highest authorities of Iran and the regional Republics, Tehran”™s stance towards the Karabakh crisis, the legal regime of the Caspian Sea, attempts to take advantage of economic opportunities, stress on the need to promote friendly and cooperative relations with all the three countries are among of the most important evidence based on which the hypothesis was tested, and their consistency with the theory of Geopolitics was explained.