Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi

Öz

While Iran did not have a clearly deliniated policy towards Central Aisa (and
Azerbaijan) during the Soviet period and conducted its relations through Moscow, it
tried to develop constructive engagement with the regional states since the collapse of the
Soviet Union. At the same time, Iran clearly came to accept the dominant postion of
Russia in the region. Although it avoided involvement in internal affairs of the regional
countries, Iran's political relations with them have not develop into a satisfactory level.
In this, American discouragement of the regional countries to enter close relations with
Iran, their identification of political Islam as domestic threat and Iran as its external
hub, as well as Iran's own economic and technological weaknesses played important
roles. Despite this political weaknesses and US pressures, however, Iran, with its
suitable geographic location and acceptance of trampa with the energy reach countries,
has emerged as an importan regional economic partner and alternative transit route.