TEHRAN, BAKU SEEKING CLOSER TIES

PRESS TV, Iran
July 31 2007

Iran’s Ambassador to Baku Nasser Hamidi-Zare’ has said that Iran and
Azerbaijan currently enjoy high-level bilateral relations.

In an interview with the Azeri TV channel ANS on Monday, the envoy
highlighted the firm resolve of the Iranian and Azeri officials to
further cement ties.

Commenting on Iran’s stance toward the territorial conflict between
Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Karabakh region, the ambassador
stressed Iran’s readiness to render support for settling the dispute.

The diplomat stressed that Iran’s relations with other countries
including Armenia are by no means to the disadvantage of Azerbaijan,
insisting that Tehran respects and recognizes the sovereignty of the
Republic of Azerbaijan.

Hamidi-Zare’ said Iran believes the Karabakh conflict should
be resolved peacefully through negotiations between Armenia and
Azerbaijan.

The envoy elaborated that Iran’s government supports restoration of
Azerbaijan’s occupied territories and repatriation of all refugees
displaced by the conflict to their home, and expressed the country’s
outright rejection of any illegal move which deteriorates the dispute.

The territorial conflict between the two South Caucasus countries
emerged in 1988.

Referring to Iran’s nuclear program, the ambassador said that thanks
to its young scientists, Iran is already on the right track toward
developing its nuclear technology for civilian purposes.

"Once the US made every endeavor to force us to relinquish our resolve
to access nuclear energy. Today, however, the Americans have been made
to enter into negotiations with Iran over Iraq, seeking Iran’s aid
and recommendations to settle problems in the war-ravaged country,"
he added.

Highlighting the close viewpoints of Iran and Azerbaijan on the Caspian
Sea legal regime, Hamidi-Zare’ recalled the positive outcomes of the
June confab held in Tehran.

During the Tehran meeting, the foreign ministers of five Caspian
littoral states managed for the first time to issue a joint communique
and also agreed on the agenda of the next summit slated for August,
he said.

The Caspian Sea legal regime is based on two agreements signed between
Iran and the former USSR in 1921 and 1940. The three new littoral
states established after the collapse of the Soviet Union do not
recognize those treaties, triggering a debate on the future status
of the world’s largest lake.

In response to question about the likelihood of a US-Russia agreement
on the common use of Gabala radar base in Azerbaijan, the ambassador
said that the decision would undermine independence and sovereignty
of the Azerbaijan Republic.

He said the US has concerns over the legitimacy of its operations and
hence seeks to secure bases for itself in different parts of the world.

In the past, global powers used their force to exert pressure on
other nations, he said, noting that policy has expired today. "Had
the Gabala radar station been of any use, it would have prevented
the collapse of the former Soviet Union," the envoy commented.

Hamidi-Zare’ stated that the Islamic Republic attaches significance
only to the statements and actions of Azeri officials, reiterating
the Azeri President Ilham Aliyev’s remarks that Azerbaijan will never
allow third countries to use its territory against Iran.