Azerbaijan denied reports on blocking the Astara checkpoint for Iranian trucks

Baku/19.10.21/Turan: A day before, the Iranian agency ILNA published an interview with Seyid Jalilafari, a member of the Iranian-Russian Chamber of Commerce, who claimed that Azerbaijani customs was blocking Iranian trucks in Astara. According to him, the Azerbaijani side deliberately turns off the electricity alleging inoperative X-ray or lack of drug-checking dogs, and detains Iranian trucks going to Russia.

For this reason, there is a 10 km long queue of trucks at the border.  He added that the trucks carry perishable fruits and vegetables, so the cargo was spoiled.

Also, Jalilfari noted that the problem arose after the Iranians started military exercises on the border with Azerbaijan, thereby spoiling relations with it.

In turn, the Customs Committee of Azerbaijan refuted the allegations of blocking of Iranian trucks. In its report dated October 19, the agency reported that the delay was due to the fact that on October 15-16 the computer system of the Iranian side was disconnected for 10 hours. In addition, trucks lost a lot of time in the process of loading goods at vegetable bases on the Iranian side which also had nothing to do with Azerbaijan. Therefore, all delays are due to problems on the Iranian side, the report said. -02D-