News Digest
TAJIK TRAINS REROUTED TO AVOID MOST TURKMEN BORDER CROSSINGS
By empty (5/30/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Tajik Railways passenger-service department head Safarali Taifurov announced that Uzbekistan has rerouted trains from Tajikistan to Russia to avoid all but one of the Turkmen-Uzbek border crossings that were used by the former route, Asia Plus-Blitz reported on 29 May. The new branch line, from Bukhara through Karakalpakstan, means that Tajik passengers will have to pass through passport and customs control twice instead of the previous seven times. The new route, although longer, will not increase travel time, according to Taifurov, and will permit a reduction in the price of tickets.KAZAKH PARLIAMENT VOTES TO SEND PEACEKEEPERS TO IRAQ
By empty (5/30/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Kazakhstan\'s parliament on 30 May voted in favor of sending a group of military engineers to participate in the U.S.-led international stabilization force in Iraq.IRAN READY TO SMOOTH ROW IN ABKHAZIA
By empty (5/29/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Iran\'s ambassador to Georgia Hossein Aminian Tousi said here Monday that Iran is prepared to assist in resolving the Abkhazia dispute in Georgia. He also declared Iran\'s full support for Georgian territorial integrity and sovereignty, adding, \"establishment of peace and security in the Caucuses is an Iran\'s important foreign policy priority.\" He said the upcoming visit by the Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze to Iran will help to further cement the already cordial ties as well as bolstering regional security.US PLAN FOR MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN COMPLETE: RUSSIAN PRESS
By empty (5/29/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Washington has drawn up a plan for military action against Iran, which it accuses of supporting terrorism and having a secret nuclear weapons program, a Russian newspaper reported Thursday, citing diplomats. \"The military action is designed to complete a popular uprising on which the Pentagon is counting,\" said Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily, adding that the operation\'s launch date would be decided at a meeting to be held Thursday in the White House. The action will be launched mainly from Iraq but military bases in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan will also be used, the paper said.Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.