IRAN/TURKMENISTAN: AHMADINEJAD TO VISIT

UNCLAS ASHGABAT 000006 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/IR AND SCA/CEN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: IR PGOV PREL TX SUBJECT: IRAN/TURKMENISTAN: AHMADINEJAD TO VISIT TURKMENISTAN ON 5-6 JANUARY ¶1. (SBU) Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Turkmenistan on January 5-6, and will be the guest of honor at the official opening of the joint 65-kilometer Dowletabat-Serahs-Khangiran gas pipeline. His last visit to Turkmenistan was in July 2006, when he met with former Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov. ¶2. (SBU) The Turkmen press has not offered many details about Ahmadinejad's schedule, however Iranian news sources indicate that in addition to the pipeline inauguration, the Iranian president will attend a groundbreaking ceremony for the Atrak-Gorgan railway project -- reportly being carried out by a number of Iranian contractors -- and will also meet with businessmen and other members of the Iranian expatriate community in Turkmenistan. The two presidents will reportedly also enter into a series of MOUs relating to expanded cultural, technical and economic cooperation. ¶3. (SBU) COMMENT: From most accounts, Ahmadinejad and Niyazov had a "friendly" relationship, notwithstanding the Iranian president's reportedly disparaging remarks about his impression of Ashgabat when he visited in 2006. At the time, he apparently characterized it to Niyazov as, "still looking very much like a village, despite your obvious efforts to make it beautiful." In recent years, the relationship between the two countries has had its ups and downs, including during the winter of 2008, when Turkmenistan stopped gas exports to Iran for three months, citing "technical reasons," as well as an incident two years ago when Iranian patrol boats shot and killed an ethnic Turkmen fisherman in the Caspian Sea, which sparked violent protests in the Turkmen community in Iran and the arrest of about 300 demonstrators. Given the premium that Berdimuhamdov places on high-level visits -- the Chinese and Russian presidents have each visited multiple times during the past year and a half -- Ahmadinejad's visit cannot help but improve Iran's standing with the Turkmen leadership. END COMMENT. CURRAN