Possible military conflict with Iran will affect Iran's neighboring countries, including Azerbaijan, senior fellow on national security issues at the Heritage Foundation James Jay Carafano believes.

"If the situation around Iran is military, the circumstances will dictate countries like Azerbaijan what to do," Carafano said in an interview with Trend News.

The Western officials have repeatedly warned that if no agreement is reached on freezing Iran's uranium enrichment program, the country may face new sanctions. Iran insists that its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes and aims at meeting the country's electricity demand. Tehran has ignored the U.N Security Council's five resolutions to stop all nuclear developments.

Carafano said the short term impact on world oil supplies will be one of problems causing concern.

"Any disruptions from a significant producer impact the whole system," he said.  

According to the analyst, "this is a volatile region of the world and the Iranian regime is extremist one."

However, analyst believes strong sanctions are the best answer to Iran's controversial policy, but possible military attacks are fraught with uncertainty.

In December 2009, the House of Representatives approved a bill to impose new sanctions on Iran to halt Iran's nuclear development by majority vote. The measure initiated by Obama suggests a ban on doing business in the U.S. on all foreign companies supplying oil products to Iran.

"The Iranian regime is fragile and would collapse in any conflict. There are dangers that Iran would try to broaden any conflict with their missile forces and to employ Hezbollah and Hamas as surrogates," he added.

/Trend News/