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November 17, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Renaissance Party (IRP), which was labelled as a terrorist organisation and even “recognised” by the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as an extremist group. While Nazarzoda has not explicitly been a supporter of the IRP, the authorities claim he operated on behalf of the banned party, when he attempted a coup.
The Tajik authorities have been cracking down on IRP members since the party was banned in 2015. Prior to the ban, the IRP was the only registered political party of Islamic affiliation in the whole of Central Asia. It also served as the only formidable political opposition to the Tajik regime led by Emomali Rahmon since 1992. The party failed to enter parliament in the February 2015 election, which international observers considered
neither fair nor free. Its leader, Muhidding Kabiri, announced in June 2015 that he had gone into self-imposed exile amid repeated threats and fear for his life.
Some suggest Dushanbe’s move to accuse Iran appeared to be part of an ongoing reaction to Iran having invited the exiled Kabiri to a Tehran confer- ence in December 2015. Tajikistan’s initial reac- tion to the event comprised of customs service restrictions on groceries imports from Iran and a shutdown of a popular Khujand city-based Iranian culture centre.
Others believe the Tajik authorities are driven by the push by Iran's regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia to boost cooperation with Dushanbe. Riyadh's am- bassador to Tajikistan, Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Al-Badi, bragged in an interview in September of successfully pursuing diplomatic overtures that led to the “expulsion of Iran and its agents from the country,” Eurasianet reported.
“This is a great victory for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its wise leadership,” he added, as he described the “intensification” of ties with Tajik- istan. Al-Badi said the Saudi-led Islamic Develop- ment Bank was providing interest-free loans for the construction of mosques and educational in- stitutions across the Central Asian country. Six re-
ligious schools and two universities were planned for launch in the upcoming two years, he noted. In May, Saudi Arabia provided a $200mn grant to Ta- jikistan for the construction of parliamentary and government buildings in Dushanbe – one of Tajik President Rahmon’s vanity projects.
It is under these conditions that a partnership with Uzbekistan could be valuable for Iran, since the new Uzbek president has been mending his country’s ties with Central Asian neighbours – most notably ending the Tajik-Uzbek dispute over the construction of the Rogun dam. Uzbekistan
is both arguably more influential in the region
due to its relatively big population – Tajikistan’s population stands at a mere 8.7mn – and has the capacity to become the beacon of Central Asian synergy, as seen in Mirziyoyev’s repeated efforts to alleviate old rivalries and revive regional economic kinships.
Historical debts
Uzbekistan’s flourishing collaboration with Iran’s neighbour Turkmenistan, which includes joint ventures, could also prove useful to the Iranians. It could eventually help fix tensions between Teh- ran and Ashgabat, which flared up early in 2017 over Turkmen natural gas exports.
The unresolved dispute between Turkmengaz and Iran traces back to January 1 when Turkmen authorities terminated pipeline gas exports
to northern Iranian provinces lacking the infrastructure to access Iran's plentiful gas, insisting the Iranians owed the company historical debts of more than $1.8bn in dues. The Turkmen foreign ministry said Iran's debts stemmed from a failure of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) to abide by the "take or pay" provision
of the gas supply contract. NIGC responded
that “Turkmengaz has committed numerous violations of the terms of the contract, including in the quality and quantity of deliveries, which are subject to penalties provided in the contract”.
Analysts were left puzzled by the decision to stop gas exports to Iran as it left Turkmenistan with