Iran's interests in Central Asia: A contemporary assessment

Perceived and Real Threats Coming from the South: The Impact of Iran and of the AfPak Region on Post-Soviet Central Asian Security

“…Moreover, in order to do so, the Caspian Sea and Central Asia were more attractive than the Iranian sources of energy, based mainly in the south. 13 Those facts show that it has been in Iran's own interests to avoid instability in postSoviet Central Asia. And indeed, a general analysis on Iranian foreign policy in the area shows that Iran has never been a source of problems for regional security.…”