Baku and Tehran have engaged in another round of political row as Azerbaijan has accused its southern neighour Iran of trafficking drugs to Europe via Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijani President Iham Aliyev said in a surprise statement on October 15 that for about 30 years, Armenia, in collusion with Iran, used Azerbaijan’s formerly-occupied territories to carry out drug trafficking to Europe.
Addressing a session of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Aliyev stated: “Over the past year, after Azerbaijan had regained control over the 130-kilometer section of the state border with Iran which was under the control of Armenia for about 30 years and thereby blocked a drug trafficking route from Iran through Jabrayil district of Azerbaijan to Armenia and further to Europe, the volume of heroin we have seized on other sections of the Azerbaijani-Iranian border has doubled compared to the same period of previous years.”
Aliyev, however added that Tehran and Baku have traditionally had cordial relations.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was quick to respond to Aliyev’s statement, denying as fabrications “the startling new allegations made by the President of Azerbaijan against the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
“Such media accusations are only in the interest of the Zionist regime to influence fraternal relations between the two Iranian and Azerbaijani nations,” Khatibzadeh said.
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic, also commented on Aliyev’s accusations against Iran.
In a twitter post on October 15, Shamkhani warned Aliyev against “devil traps”.
At the summit of the former Soviet republics, held in the form of a video conference, generally, the President of Azerbaijan took a conciliatory stance, stating that Tehran and Baku have traditionally had cordial relations.
