Pipeline Politics in Central Asia: Iran’s Interests and Options

Energy security is a cornerstone of foreign policy of the great powers. Energy resources of the Caspian Sea and Central Asia as two critical geopolitical areas are of great importance for regional and trans-regional states. Due to the huge opportunities these two regions present out of the OPEC context, they have appeared as a large chess board. Aimed at energy security and providing diversity of resources, the Caspian region is a great competition scene for players like the US, China, the EU, Russia, Iran, and India. There exists a great game of oil policies and pipeline diplomacies in this region. The present article aims to provide answer for the question what are the challenges and opportunities of the great powers plans in the Central Asia and Caspian for Iran and what are the policy options of Iran to tackle the Challenges? Iran’s policy options in this rivalry is to make efforts to get rid of the sanctions, adopt an economic diplomacy, strengthen domestic infrastructures in order to implement economic activities in the region, contribute to economic plans of great powers in the region and economic investment and partnership with the regional countries in bilateral and multilateral frameworks.