Iran believes that Israel is behind the deterioration of its relations with Azerbaijan. This statement was made on Monday by Nasser Kanani, official spokesman for the Iranian MFA.
"The Zionist regime (meaning Israel - TASS) believes that its national security strategy is to create an unstable and insecure situation in the region," the Iranian MFA Telegram channel quoted him as saying. - "Understanding that some people benefit from disagreements in the diplomatic sphere between Iran and Azerbaijan, we have tried to overcome these tensions through diplomatic initiatives."
Kanani stressed that, despite the existing differences between Tehran and Baku, the foreign ministers held three rounds of telephone conversations, which "were positive." The sides "worked out a common approach to overcome the current situation and to de-escalate relations between the countries." The official representative of the Iranian foreign ministry also expressed hope that the Islamic Republic would be able to normalize relations with Azerbaijan.
The relations between Baku and Tehran aggravated after the armed attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Iran in January this year, which killed the head of diplomatic mission security and wounded two of his colleagues. After the incident, the Azerbaijani embassy suspended diplomatic activities and its staff and their family members were evacuated to Azerbaijan. Baku also views as an unfriendly step the large-scale military exercises, recently organized by Tehran on the border with Azerbaijan. Baku also says that Iran was involved in the assassination attempt on Azerbaijani MP Fazil Mustafa at the end of March.
During the last months, Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies carried out a number of operations to detain people accused of spying and subversive activities in the country in favor of Iran. On April 6, four employees of the Iranian embassy in Baku were declared persona non grata and ordered to leave Azerbaijan within 48 hours.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: mostafa meraji/Pixabay
Based on materials from TASS