Protest by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the trial of five people accused of « violent Islamic activities against the security of state » in the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan deteriorated further the already cold relations between Tehran and Tashkent.

The men, arrested in Namangan, a city situated near the borders with Tajikestan and Afqanistan, are formally charged to have participated in operations aimed at toppling the secular regime of president Islam Karimov. The arrests followed a crackdown by Uzbek security forces against « Islamic extremist gangs » the Uzbek government says had killed last year several officials in Namangan.

According to the state prosecutor, the unidentified « groups » have received training in urban guerrilla and propaganda warfare in some « neighbouring countries » in the south, a clear reference to Tajikestan and Pakistan, but particularly to Afqanistan, a war torn nation ruled by ultra orthodox Muslims known as the Taliban, or Islamic seminarists.

More than hundred of people alleged to be members of radical islamist organisations were rounded up and arrested last year. As the trial started in Namangan amid unseen security measures, president Karimov, speaking in the Parliament in Tashkent, warned his security me that if they fail to « eradicate » the islamists, he will do the job himself.

His remarks drew immediately a sharp attack from Tehran. In an « authorised » commentary which normally represents the official point of views of the conservative mullahs, the state controlled « Voice of the Islamic Republic » (Radio Iran) which is under the direct control of the conservative ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, explained that Mr Karimov’s crack down of the Uzbek Muslim people is the result of his « inability to distinguish between Muslims and fundamentalists ».

What made Tehran more angry with Uzbekistan, the largest and strongest nation among the newly independent Muslim dominated of Central Asia was a new law passed by the parliament aimed at giving the security forces more freedom to fight all islamist fundamentalist organisations.

The law, which is bitterly denounced by the mostly Muslim-based opposition and seems to be « copied » from those already existing in Turkey, makes an offence for women to wear Islamic dress such as the chador, which is commonly worn by Iranian women or for men to grow bear.

For years, Uzbek leaders would adamantly den the existence of Islamic radical groups. In public statements, Mr Karimov himself would remind that Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance and that himself is a true Muslim. Now, not only they are officially hinting at « dangerous threats » posed by islamist fundamentalism « coming from the South » but are taking the stiffest of laws forbidding any form of « political activities » for religious-based organisations in this multi-religion nation ruled by a secular regime.

Since Mr Karimov’s warning against the anti-state activities of the « islamist fundamentalists » were made prior to his departure for Moscow, where unspecified « new measures » aimed at « fostering security and peace in the region », fighting and resisting « more resolutely all kind of ideological radicalism and fundamentalism coming from the South » and helping economic reconstruction of Tajikestan were jointly announced by the Russian, Uzbek and Tajik presidents, the Iranian commentary accused the Uzbek leader to be after the « creation of an anti-Islamic axis » controlled by Tashkent with the help of Russia.

Tehran’s new fist mending with Tashkent erupts at a time that its relations suffered a set back with Eshq-Abad, another Central Asian capital which used to have the closest of ties with Islam-ruled Iran. 

Barely the Turkemen president Sapar Murat Niazof had returned from a successful visit to Washington where he had concluded deals with some US oil companies including the transport of Turkemen gas and oil via the Caspian Sea directly to Azarbaijan on the opposite side instead of using existing Iranian pipe line networks, thus depriving foreign currency hungry Iran from hundreds of millions of easy revenues from royalties that the conservative-controlled press in Tehran squarely accused him of « treason », warning Turkemenistan against « possible consequences » in the relations between the two countries.

Analysts in Tehran place this trend of « turning friends into enemies » in the framework of the bitter struggle between the reformists represented by the ever popular president Mohammed Khatami with the conservatives who, led by the leader of the regime, the ayatollah Khameneh’i who, despite several successive humiliating defeat starting with the surprise victory of the ayatollah Khatami in the last years’ presidential elections continue to control most of the regime’s key positions, particularly the armed forces, the intelligence and security machines.

8598