Images of Iranian trucks carrying fuel to Karabakh sparked diplomatic row between Baku and Tehran last year
Iran has seemingly resumed sending trucks to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region without Baku’s permission.
Images shared in social media, show the trucks with Iranian license plates enter Khankandi city in Nagorno-Karabakh on June 19. Khankandi is under observation of Russian peacekeeping forces.
Baku-based Milli.az shared images of a truck with an Iranian license plate (number 124872) enter Khankandi from the territory of Armenia on June 19. The truck returned to Armenia in the evening but with a different license plate.
Another truck with the license plate ART TABRIZ entered Khanakndi on the same day and did not return.
“Iranian drivers are using a new trick now. They remove Iranian license plates entering Armenia and change them into Armenian ones while going to Khankendi,” Milli.az said.
The website also questioned why Iran is “Armenianizing” license plates while entering Khankendi.
A similar controversy was sparked in Azerbaijan in April last year over the delivery of fuel to Nagorno-Karabakh in Iranian trucks. The video showing the fuel trucks enter Nagorno-Karabakh even prompted a diplomatic row between Baku and Yerevan.
Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov had demanded that Tehran investigates how the Iranian trucks ended up in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Aragchi issued a statement back then describing the reports as “utterly false” and blaming the incidents on forces that seek to drive a wedge between Baku and Yerevan.
