Railway link with Central Asia keeps Iran's image on track

A recently-opened rail link between Iran and five Central Asian republics is being hailed as the turning point in the region's development, writes Dilip Hiro for Inter Press Service.

LONDON (IPS): In the Central Asia republics, it is called the "Independence Link". To Iran, an important plank in its campaign to establish trade and joint ventures with its neighbors.

Dubbed the "New Silk Road", the new rail project between the Iranian border town of Sarakhs and Tejand, Turkmenistan, is a landmark in the evolving relations between Iran and five Muslim - majority Central Asian republics.

Both Iran, with 1,600 kilometers of shoreline along the Persia Gulf and the Arabian Sea, and the Central Asian five - Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - stand to gain enormously by interlinking with the Iranian railway network.

The route -- more popularly and significantly known as the "Independence Link" -- connects Gulf ports like Abadan and Bandar Khomeini with the railway system of the former Soviet Union which in turn connects the Central Asian region with the Russian Federation.

Since all of the Central Asian republics are landlocked, they are dependent on the goodwill of their neighbors --- especially the Russian Federation - for foreign trade.

After the 1917 Russian Revolution, these states found themselves integrated into centralized Soviet systems of economic development, transportation, communications and energy. The extent of this integration became starkly obvious to them after they became politically independent in December 1991 but found themselves still bound to Russia economically.

If Uzbekistan wanted to break with the past practice of selling its cotton to the textile mills based in Russia, and sell its prized commodity for much - needed hard currencies, it needed Moscow's goodwill to transport it through Russian to non-Russian destinations.

Increasingly the Central Asian republics became desperate to loosen the economic stranglehold Russia had over them. They realized the importance of the fact that at Tejand, Turkmenistan, the Soviet rail network connecting them with one another, and all of them with the Russian Federation, was only 150 kilometers from the Iranian city of Mashhad, the terminus of a rail system that included Iran's Gulf ports.

Barely six months after Turkmenistans' independence in June 1992, work began in both Iran and Turkmenistan. While the Iranians extended their line from Mashad to the border town of Sarakhs, the Turkmens started a branch from Tejand to reach Sarakhs.

Four years later, when the project was completed, it was hailed by Central Asians as the "Independence Link".

At an inauguration ceremony in Mashad, Iran last month, Iranian president Ali Akbar Hasmehi Rafsanjani hailed the completion of the project as "a turning point in the history of the region's development".

He and Turkmen leader Saparmurad Niyazov unveiled a plaque commemorating the inauguration of "The New Silk Road" at a ceremony attended by the presidents of Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, all the other four Central Asian Republics, Armenia, and Georgia.

"This railway brings the Silk Road back to life and is a symbol of the alliance between east and west," said Rafsanjani. Niyazov said the railway would "transform life in the region" and allow the "entire world to communicate more easily."

The new rail connection gives the Central Asian republics the option of conducting their foreign trade through Iran's ports which, being in warm waters, are open throughout the year, which is not the case with the Russian ports in the Baltic.

The Tejand-Sarakhs link opens up new areas of economic cooperation between Central Asia and Iran. For example Kazakhstan can supply oil to a destination in eastern Iran while Teheran exports the same quantity abroad for Kazakhstan.

But the implications of the rail link between Iran and Turkmenistan go beyond the region. The impinge directly on Iran's relations with the 15-member European Union and the United States - to Teheran's advantage.

Over the past year or more, Washington has been pursuing an active anti-Teheran policy. It has been pressing the European Union, Japan and Canada to follow its lead in banning economic relations with Iran for its alleged plans to acquire nuclear weapons and for sponsoring 'international terrorism'.

Without exception, all U.S. allies have spurned Washington's advice on Iran. Instead, they have stressed the need for continued 'critical dialogue' with Teheran in order to influence its behavior, politically and diplomatically.

The reasons for their decision are economic and geopolitical. With its 60 million population, Iran provides a large market. And its oil reserves of 93 billion barrels - nine percent of the global total - and natural gas reserves of 20,700 billion cubic meters - 15 percent of the world total - are enormous.

Iran is perhaps the most strategic country inn the world. Besides having land borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Iraq, it shares the Caspian Sea with kazakhstan and Russia, and shares the Persian Gulf with the six Arab states of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Now, on top of that has come a rail link with Central Asia, which will enable Iran to build on the foundation that was laid in February 1992, with the expansion of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). Describing the expanded ECO "one great Muslim family of 300 million", Iran helped establish its trade and development bank to finance joint ventures.

Among other things, the latest development in the transportation profile of the region will encourage the EU and Japan to continue resisting American pressures to isolate Iran.

Thus, what Central Asians call the Independence Link will also aid Teheran to maintain its own hard - won economic and political independence.

-- IPS