ABEL AGHANBEGIAN: GEOPOLITICAL PERSPECTIVES OF CONSTRUCTING ARMENIA-IRAN RAILWAY SHOULD BE ASSESSED AS WELL

Noyan Tapan
Oct 24, 2008

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 24, NOYAN TAPAN. The main goal of constructing
an Armenia-Iran railway is to ensure transportation of goods, Abel
Aghanbegian, economist, Academician of the RF Academy of Sciences
said at the round table "The Economies of Armenia and Russia Today
and Tomorrow" organized by A. Aghanbegian Higher School of Corporate
Management under the patronage of the RA National Academy of Sciences.

According to him, the volume of goods transportation by vehicles
in this direction is small, so instead of building a railway, the
Armenia-Iran motorway should be improved by constructing several
tunnels and reducing the motorway’s length, as well as updating
vehicles. A. Aghanbekian noted that quite a large amount (1-2 billion
dollars) is needed to build an Iran-Armenia railway as its construction
is related to considerable difficulties.

However, in his opinion, it is not ruled out that for example,
Russia will make investments in this project if it considers the
Armenia-Iran railway to be important from the strategic point of
view. A. Aghanbegian mentioned that there were many cases in Russia
when transport routes were constructed for strategic reasons and
their operation finally covered their expenses – sometimes several
decades later.

He said that Iran is a huge country with great potential. It has twice
as much oil reserves as Russia, while by its gas reserves Iran is in
second place in the world after Russia. So A. Aghanbegian pointed
out the necessity to assess also the geopolitical perspectives of
constructing a railway, saying that it is possible that a railway
should be built from this point of view.