Tehran tries to dictate to Baku, but has to put up with reality

Baku/01.01.23/Turan: On the eve of the New Year, a telephone conversation took place between the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Iran. The Iranian Foreign Ministry website reported that the sides discussed important issues of bilateral relations.

Hussein Abdullahian congratulated the government and people of Azerbaijan on the beginning of 2023 and expressed hope that relations between Tehran and Baku would "expand in the political and economic spheres" in the new year. He expressed Iran's readiness to develop cooperation with Azerbaijan in the transport and transit sector.

"Abdollahian confirmed Iran's disagreement with the presence of foreign states in the region, stressing that the countries of the region are able to properly solve problems, with a positive approach."

He further proposed to form working groups for media activities in both countries and to study water shortages and pollution of the border river Araz between the two countries.

In turn, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that during the conversation on December 31, the parties discussed the implementation of bilateral trade, economic and transport projects.

The parties expressed their mutual desire to intensify the work of the bilateral commission for cooperation in the economic, trade and humanitarian spheres. The post-conflict situation in the region and other regional issues were also discussed. -02B-