Obamáék nem örülnek – Azerbajdzsánból bombázhatja Iránt Izrael?
A Foreign Policy vezető amerikai tisztviselőkre hivatkozva azt írja, hogy az „izraeliek vettek egy repülőteret, ezt pedig úgy hívják, hogy Azerbajdzsán.” Az Obama adminisztráció a jelentések szerint nem rajong a Jeruzsálem-Baku kapcsolatokért – attól tartanak, hogy Jeruzsálem lesújt a teheráni nukleáris programra.
A Foreign Policy amerikai titkosszolgálati tisztviselőkre hivatkozva hozzátette: még ha Izrael nem is használja fel egy Irán elleni közvetlen légicsapáshoz a repülőtereket, Azerbajdzsán akkor is nagyon hasznos lehet Jeruzsálem regionális érdekei szempontjából. A támaszpontokról például kutató-mentő missziókat hajthatnak végre.
A magazin értesülései szerint az Obama-adminisztráció attól tart, hogy a Jeruzsálem-Baku kapcsolatok erősödése potenciálisan növeli az Irán elleni izraeli csapás kockázatát. „Figyeljük Izrael tevékenységét Azerbajdzsánban, és nem rajongunk érte” – idézett egy amerikai tisztviselőt a Foreign Policy.
A muszlim többségű Azerbajdzsán és Izrael kapcsolata már a kilencvenes évek óta virágzik. A kétoldalú gazdasági és kereskedelmi kapcsolatok mellett a biztonsági együttműködés is szoros, ahogy az be is bizonyosodott idén az izraeli diplomaták elleni merényletkísérletek során.
Januárban például az azeri hatóságok lelepleztek egy iráni állampolgárt, aki a gyanú szerint zsidó tanárokat akart meggyilkolni egy bakui zsidó iskolában. A londoni The Times pedig még februárban arról írt, hogy Azerbajdzsán Mosszad ügynökökkel együttműködve igyekszik információkat gyűjteni Iránról. A brit lap egy név nélkül nyilatkozó ügynökre hivatkozva azt írta, hogy Baku a „hírszerzési tevékenység egyik központja”.
2012 elején Jeruzsálem megerősítette, hogy Baku 1,6 milliárd dollár értékben vásárol robotrepülőgépeket és rakétavédelmi berendezéseket a zsidó államtól.
Márciusban pedig az azeri rendőrség letartóztatott 22 embert, köztük egy iráni állampolgárt, akiket azzal gyanúsítanak, hogy amerikai és izraeli célpontok ellen terveztek merényleteket Azerbajdzsánban. Baku szerint az összeesküvés szálai az Iráni Forradalmi Gárdáig nyúlnak.
Israel’s Secret Staging Ground
U.S. officials believe that the Israelis have gained access to airbases in Azerbaijan. Does this bring them one step closer to a war with Iran?
BY MARK PERRY |MARCH 28, 2012
In 2009, the deputy chief of mission of the U.S. embassy in Baku, Donald Lu, sent a cable to the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom titled „Azerbaijan’s discreet symbiosis with Israel.” The memo, later released by WikiLeaks, quotes Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev as describing his country’s relationship with the Jewish state as an iceberg: „nine-tenths of it is below the surface.”
Why does it matter? Because Azerbaijan is strategically located on Iran’s northern border and, according to several high-level sources I’ve spoken with inside the U.S. government, Obama administration officials now believe that the „submerged” aspect of the Israeli-Azerbaijani alliance — the security cooperation between the two countries — is heightening the risks of an Israeli strike on Iran.
In particular, four senior diplomats and military intelligence officers say that the United States has concluded that Israel has recently been granted access to airbases on Iran’s northern border. To do what, exactly, is not clear. „The Israelis have bought an airfield,” a senior administration official told me in early February, „and the airfield is called Azerbaijan.”
Senior U.S. intelligence officials are increasingly concerned that Israel’s military expansion into Azerbaijan complicates U.S. efforts to dampen Israeli-Iranian tensions, according to the sources. Military planners, I was told, must now plan not only for a war scenario that includes the Persian Gulf — but one that could include the Caucasus. The burgeoning Israel-Azerbaijan relationship has also become a flashpoint in both countries’ relationship with Turkey, a regional heavyweight that fears the economic and political fallout of a war with Iran. Turkey’s most senior government officials have raised their concerns with their U.S. counterparts, as well as with the Azeris, the sources said.
The Israeli embassy in Washington, the Israel Defense Forces, and the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, were all contacted for comment on this story but did not respond.
The Azeri embassy to the United States also did not respond to requests for information regarding Azerbaijan’s security agreements with Israel. During a recent visit to Tehran, however, Azerbaijan’s defense minister publicly ruled out the use of Azerbaijan for a strike on Iran. „The Republic of Azerbaijan, like always in the past, will never permit any country to take advantage of its land, or air, against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which we consider our brother and friend country,” he said.
But even if his government makes good on that promise, it could still provide Israel with essential support. A U.S. military intelligence officer noted that Azeri defense minister did not explicitly bar Israeli bombers from landing in the country after a strike. Nor did he rule out the basing of Israeli search-and-rescue units in the country. Proffering such landing rights — and mounting search and rescue operations closer to Iran — would make an Israeli attack on Iran easier.
„We’re watching what Iran does closely,” one of the U.S. sources, an intelligence officer engaged in assessing the ramifications of a prospective Israeli attack confirmed. „But we’re now watching what Israel is doing in Azerbaijan. And we’re not happy about it.”
Israel’s deepening relationship with the Baku government wascementedin February by a $1.6 billion arms agreement that provides Azerbaijan with sophisticated drones and missile-defense systems. At the same time, Baku’s ties with Tehran have frayed: Iran presented a note to Azerbaijan’s ambassador last month claiming that Baku has supported Israeli-trained assassination squads targeting Iranian scientists, an accusation the Azeri government called „a slander.” In February, a member of Yeni Azerbadzhan — the ruling party — called on the government to change the country’s name to „North Azerbaijan,” implicitly suggesting that the 16 million Azeris who live in northern Iran („South Azerbaijan”) are in need of liberation.
And this month, Baku announced that 22 people had been arrested for spying on behalf of Iran, charging they had been tasked by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to „commit terrorist acts against the U.S., Israeli, and other Western states’ embassies.” The allegations prompted multiple angry denials from the Iranian government.
atv.hu / JPost / Foreign Policy
