IRAN DENIES ITS TV CHANNEL’S REPORT ON ‘GARABAGH INDEPENDENCE’

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
June 8 2006

Baku, June 7, AssA-Irada
Iran’s state-run television channel has reportedly termed Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh, an Azeri region under Armenian occupation, as an
independent country, despite its officials dismissing the statement.

The head of Iranian Foreign Ministry’s department on CIS, Mehdi
Safari, has told the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry that the reports
have no merit.

According to some media reports, the neighboring country’s TV-1
channel maintained that Upper Garabagh has been an independent state
for 15 years, while Azerbaijan is allegedly putting forth “territorial
claims” against the self-styled republic. The reports were commenting
on Sunday’s round of talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents
in Bucharest to discuss settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

The Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Taghizada said that in his
statement, Safari indicated that as a state channel, TV-1 expresses
only the position of the Iranian government and the latter’s stance
on the Garabagh conflict is clear.