A TAPI1-oriented Analysis on Geopolitics of Khorasan

Khorasan has been the general name for the eastern regions of the country since Sassanid Era. The historical territory of Khorasan included the present Khorasan Province in Iran and some main parts of current Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. In a broader sense, parts of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kirgizstan and Kazakhstan can be included in the immense historical great Khorasan. Nowadays, main parts of great Khorasan in the Caspian sea eastern regions is referred to as the Central Asia. during the last two decades mainly after the collapse of Soviet Union, they have been paid more attention in the world because of the valuable energy resources in general, the natural gas ones in particular and the countries of South and East Asia are the biggest consumers of the Caspian natural gas. However, the confinement of these countries with lands and lack of access to sea ways have caused problems for the transport of the resources. One of the options is the transport of natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India (TAPI). This paper seeks to answer the question that “what are the problems of launching the TAPI pipelines? ”