June 4, 2007 - 14:45 AMT
U.S.-Iran war to become calamity for Azerbaijan
"Every day hundreds of Iranians cross the Azeri border in search of asylum in the neighbor country. The situation at the checkpoint becomes more tensed hour by hour and can transform into mass protest actions pregnant with unpredictable consequences.

Official statements on the developments have not been issued yet. However, Azeri frontier guards say the border was closed by an initiative of the Iranian side, thus forcing the Azeri customs officials to adequate steps. As result, hundreds of Iranian citizens stuck on the Azerbaijani territory. Besides, tension is aggravated by numerous trucks and cars on both sides of the border," says an article titled "Azerbaijan faces nuclear calamity?" and published in New Russian Word newspaper.

The residents of the near-border regions are panic-stricken. Many of them have already gone hungry, since they earned their living by importing food and household articles from Iran, according to the authors.

In case of a military campaign followed by an overland operation as in Afghanistan and Iraq, Azerbaijan may be flooded with new refugees, who will huddle in tent camps and face insanitation and epidemics. Mass flows of Iranians to Azerbaijan, where a million of refugees already languish in poverty, threaten with a humanitarian calamity.

Besides, U.S. pin-point bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities will inevitably cause radioactive contamination which can reach Baku," the articles reads.