US made it clear: Karabakh is Azerbaijan Pundit Tilman talks to Armenian media

Mikhail Tilman, director of the Centre for Policy Studies in the United States, has predicted the US strategy towards the South Caucasus and what it will become depending on the results of the upcoming presidential elections.

"Washington's goal is always the same: the assertion of its leadership position, and the Caucasus region is no exception. The Caucasus region has traditionally always been of interest to major world powers," Tilman said in an interview with Armenian media, according to Caliber.Az.

"And there are two points here. The first point has to do with world trade. The second moment is the strategic goal of the US to fight against Russia. Russia and China are considered revisionist powers in US doctrine. And now the US is undermining Russia's position in the South Caucasus via Armenia. Its aim is the expulsion of Russia from the region and the closure of the Russian military base there. It may even happen that Armenia will withdraw from the CSTO as well.

There are several facts about the West's relations with Azerbaijan after the elections. One of them is that Azerbaijan was and is a major oil-producing region. If I am not mistaken, it is a major exporter of oil and gas. For a rather small country, this fact alone gives it weight. That is why the Europeans do not need to argue with such a country. After all, energy supplies from Russia have almost stopped. The US position on Azerbaijan and the Karabakh conflict was expressed last summer when the US envoy to Armenia said that the US would be a key player in "ensuring the security of Karabakh Armenians within Azerbaijan. That's how the US is going to stand.

Will the US position change in case of Trump's election victory? Here we have to follow very simple things. Trump is Iran's archenemy, and he is all about fighting with Iran in some way. And since Iran is a very friendly state towards Armenia, it can of course harm US-Armenian relations tangentially. I'm not saying it will necessarily. But it's something to keep in mind. Now, if Biden wins, we already know what happened, the US has made it clear: Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan, that's it," the political analyst said.