While still engaged in conflicts from Syria to Yemen, Iran is now destabilizing a dispute in the Caucasus that you’ve likely never heard of — the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Recently, Azerbaijan discovered that Iranian trucks are supplying energy to the self-proclaimed Armenian government in Nagorno-Karabakh, the province that Armenia captured in 1993 and which remains in dispute to this day.

Until recently, Iran was officially neutral on the issue of the disposition of Nagorno-Karabakh, and recognized that it was a province of Azerbaijan. This posture came despite the fact that Iranian policy towards Azerbaijan has been tense throughout the post-Soviet period, and it has been a steadfast partner to Armenia. Tehran’s stance was influenced by its own fears of a breakaway or secessionist Azeri minority in northwestern Iran. Indeed, Lt. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s chief of General Staff, openly stated that Karabakh is Azeri territory and that changing borders by force is unacceptable.

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Read the full article at War on the Rocks.