ARMENIA ANALYST: IRAN CONSIDERS A POSSIBILITY OF CAPTURING BAKU

Regnum, Russia
March 6 2007

The question of Azerbaijan rendering assistance to the USA in its
military campaign against Iran will be soon discussed in Washington,
Armenian political analyst, expert Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan announced
at a news conference in Yerevan on March 6. According to him, in late
March a meeting of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov and
US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice, during which the USA will try
to gain Azerbaijan’s support in its campaign against Iran.

The analyst also said that US allies in the Iranian campaign can be
Israel, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Armenia in no way will participate
in it, as the country’s authorities are not suicides. If Baku agrees
to take part in the Iraqi campaign, the United States will provide
dividends to the US not at the expense of settling the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict for Azerbaijan’s sake, but at the expense of giving Iranian
territories to it. "There is strong Armenian lobby in the United
States, and Washington will not dare giving compensation at the
expense of Nagorno Karabakh," the analyst believes.

Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan also noted that Iran has a program that
envisages certain steps, if military actions are started against it.

Iran is ready not only to strike Azerbaijani strategic facilities, if
Baku takes the anti-Iranian position, but Tehran considers a scenario
of capturing Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital. Iran recognizes that if Baku
is captured, the USA will not run the risk of striking the oil city.

However, Iran is ready to strike Georgia as well.