Iran expected to top agenda in Washington talks between Azerbaijani
president, Bush
AP Worldstream; Apr 28, 2006
AIDA SULTANOVA
Iran is expected to figure prominently in Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliev’s White House meeting with President George W. Bush on Friday.
Aliev, however, has made it clear from the start of his Washington
visit that he would not allow his Caspian Sea country to be used for
any operations against its neighbor.
“We think that diplomatic efforts should be stepped up for settling
all questions that arise between the United States and Iran,”
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told reporters in
Washington on Thursday.
Calling Iran “our big neighbor,” Mammadyarov emphasized that the two
countries “share history, culture and religion,” and that Iran
guarantees Azerbaijan transit rights for land shipments and provides
gas supplies to its Nakhichevan enclave, cut off by Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh.
“All this plays a great role when we speak about the situation around
Iran.”
Separately, a report being released Friday by the chief of the
U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, on Iran’s nuclear program is
expected to conclude that Tehran has failed to meet a deadline for
complying with U.N. Security Council requests to suspend uranium
enrichment.
Senior U.S. administration officials said Thursday that the White
House discussion with Aliev would address the growing number of
countries united in their concern about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. They
stressed that Aliev has what one called “a close perspective on Iran”
and that he would be able to share his views with Bush.
As for the U.S. side, its interest is in ensuring Azerbaijan and the
United States have a shared understanding of the concerns posed by
Iran.
Mammadyarov said that the Bush-Aliev meeting signified the two
countries were entering a new level of cooperation as Azerbaijan
becomes a key energy transit country. The newly built
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which provides an alternative to Russian
routes and energy sources in the volatile Middle East, is scheduled to
deliver the first shipments of Caspian Sea oil to Western markets this
June.
In the fall, the new Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline will provide a
new source of energy for the Turkish market.
“This answers our national interest and signifies the strengthening of
Azerbaijan’s independence, of our position on the international arena
and the region,” Mammadyarov told The Associated Press in an
interview.
The senior U.S. administration officials said that Azerbaijan’s
interest in U.S. help in developing energy markets gave Washington
leverage on the question of democracy promotion in the former Soviet
republic. The White House meeting will address democracy concerns,
including the last two parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan that did
not meet international standards, they said.
Azerbaijani officials also hope Bush and Aliev will discuss the
18-year-old conflict over the ethnic Armenian-dominated enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh. At least 30,000 people were killed and 1 million
made refugees during six years of war that ended with a shaky
cease-fire in 1994. Ethnic Armenian forces occupy the enclave inside
Azerbaijan.
The United States, together with Russia and the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, is trying to mediate a resolution.
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Associated Press writer Tom Raum contributed to this story.