Azerbaijan reportedly agrees to release Georgia-bound carriages

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
5 Mar 05

[Presenter] The Azerbaijani and Georgian governments have reached
agreement on the wagons detained on the border. The Azerbaijani
government ordered to stop unloading the wagons on suspicious routes
after Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli’s visit to Baku, the
State Railway Department has said.

[Correspondent] The State Railway Department has ordered to stop the
unloading of the wagons detained on the Azeri-Georgian border which
are bound for Armenia. Teymur Mammadov from the department told Son
Xabar that the order was issued today [5 March].

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli, who completed his visit to
Azerbaijan today, said [in Georgia] that the sides reached an
agreement on the detained ferry trucks. Whereas in Baku, Mr Noghaideli
said that if Azerbaijan would allow the trucks to enter Georgia,
official Tbilisi would give an official guarantee that they would not
be redirected to Armenia.

The talk is about the import of those goods and there is no doubt that
they will be imported to Georgia, end of quote.

Elxan Polxov, the second secretary of the Azerbaijani embassy in
Georgia, said the Azerbaijani side had agreed to allow the wagons to
enter Georgia, but set a condition as well.

[Polxov over the phone] The only condition is that no goods
transported to Georgia via Azerbaijan should be redirected to
Armenia. And Mr Noghaideli has given us an official guarantee that his
government would keep this under its control and that such cases would
not be repeated in the future.

[Correspondent] However, it is not yet clear when the wagons would be
released. Elxan Polxov said some procedures should be worked out for
the process to start.

[Polxov] I think the wagons will be released after we resolve some
technical issues.

[Correspondent] It must be mentioned that 284 of the 400 detained
wagons contain wheat. Of the 284 wagons, 56 have temporarily been
unloaded in some mills of Baku. Another 100 wagons have been taken to
Azertaxil stores rented by the State Customs Committee. Of the
remaining wagons, 74 contain diesel, five reactive fuel and 32 liquid
fuel.