Region on alert, arrests in Azerbaijan

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Authorities in Azerbaijan say they've arrested several Iranian intelligence and Hezbollah activists who were allegedly planning attacks on foreigners.

The Azeri national security agency announced the arrests Tuesday, while the state-owned television reported those arrested had been gathering intelligence and acquiring explosives and weapons, Haaretz.com reported.

The arrests follow a similar action last month, in which three men were detained for allegedly planning to attack two Israelis employed by a Jewish school in the Azeri capital of Baku.

Tensions between Iran and the West arising from Tehran's nuclear program appear to have spread to the south Caucasus, with the arrests and an attempted bomb attack on an Israeli embassy vehicle last week in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, which borders the oil-rich Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan also borders Iran.

Israel blamed Iran and Hezbollah for the Tbilisi attack and for a similar bombing in New Delhi and blasts in Bangkok. Iran and Hezbollah denied the charges.

A report in the Tehran Times, quoting Fars News Agency, accused Azerbaijan of harboring a Mossad agent accused of being involved in the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist.

A BBC report said the strategic importance of the Caucasus grows with the development of energy resources in Azerbaijan and in the Caspian Sea that are carried through pipelines to markets in the West.

Georgia political analyst Alexander Rondeli told the BBC the region has become like Switzerland prior to World War II as a center fr spying: "Everyone is using the South Caucasus for this hidden war. No doubt about it."

The report said while Georgia and Azerbaijan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, have ties to Iran, both also are allies of the West, supporting NATO efforts in Afghanistan, and any major conflict in Iran is bound to spill over into the region.