Baku calls on Tehran to take action in connection with Mehdi Sobhani's provocative statement/UPDATED/

Baku/11.11.23/Turan: A day later, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded to the provocative statement of the Iranian Ambassador to Armenia Mehdi Sobhani.

"We strongly condemn baseless and provocative opinions voiced by Mehdi Sobhani, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Republic of Armenia during his interview to Armenian CivilNet platform on November 10, 2023.

These opinions, which undermine the relations between Azerbaijan and Iran which are based on mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, contradict the position expressed by the Iranian President during the meeting between the two countries on November 9, 2023, in Tashkent. During the aforementioned meeting, Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, mentioned with pleasure that Azerbaijan ensured its territorial integrity after many years and Karabakh returned to Azerbaijan.

Against the backdrop of the remarks of the President of Iran, as well as recent positive dynamics in the development of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, we consider the position of the Iranian Ambassador against our territorial integrity and sovereignty as a provocation.

We expect Iran to prevent such steps, which are inappropriate to the spirit of our relations, as well as to take necessary steps regarding the opinions voiced by the Ambassador," Aykhan Hajizada said.

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2023 November 11 (Saturday) 22:31:03

Official Baku continues to tolerate Iran's impudence   

Baku/11.11.23/Turan: Official Tehran has once again demonstrated its duplicity and boundless hypocrisy. Just the day before, the head of this country, Raisi, assured Ilham Aliyev that attempts by other countries to spoil relations between Iran and Azerbaijan are doomed to failure.

Raisi congratulated Aliyev on the liberation of Karabakh and declared his readiness to help in its restoration.

The next day, Iranian Ambassador to Armenia Mehdi Sobhani, in an interview with CivilNet, actually denied the words of the Iranian President.

“We recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia and Azerbaijan within the framework of international rules. But this does not mean that the rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh will be lost. The rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh must be respected and they themselves must have the right to determine their own destiny. This is a fact that Azerbaijan cannot ignore,” Sobhani said.

Touching upon the topic of the Zangezur corridor, he said that Iran is not against restoring communication channels, but considers the existence of roads outside the control of Armenia unacceptable.

“We are against those communications and channels that go beyond the sovereignty of Armenia and call into question the independence of Armenia,” said Mehdi Sobhani.

The ambassador's position regarding Karabakh actually sounds like a demand to give this region political status. There is no other way to call it arrogance. Considering that such behavior is almost the norm for Iranian officials, one should not be surprised. Therefore, it will not be strange if Sobhani’s leadership, including his minister or the head of Iran, declare the same thing.

It is noteworthy that Sobhani once worked as the second secretary of the Iranian Embassy in Azerbaijan.

Considering that official Baku previously swallowed the impudence of the current Iranian ambassador to Baku, Abbas Mousavi, who allowed himself to threaten Israel and its ambassador on behalf of Azerbaijan, it is unlikely that the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry will react to Sobhani’s nonsense. -02B-