news.az, Azerbaijan
Aug 6 2011

Azerbaijan maintains ties with Israel, raises influence in Arab world – MP
Sat 06 August 2011 04:30 GMT | 0:30 Local Time

News.Az interviews Asim Mollazade, MP and leader of the Democratic
Reforms Party.
Earlier this week you met Palestinian ambassador to Azerbaijan. What
did you discuss at the meeting?

The talks focused on resolution of Middle East and Nagorno-Karabakh
conflicts, cooperation between Azerbaijan and Palestine.

We agreed that these conflicts have generated a lot of refugees and
created a humanitarian catastrophe. In Palestine, the situation has
lasted more than 40 years, and people there are sensitive to the
humanitarian problems that surfaced as a result of occupation of
Azerbaijani territory by Armenia. The ambassador expressed his full
support for territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

I also briefed the ambassador on policies of our party, told him about
our domestic and foreign policy and economic situation in the country.
In general, it was an interesting meeting. As far as I understood, the
meeting was initiated by the ambassador. Yes. You know that we
regularly meet with ambassadors of various countries accredited in
Azerbaijan and exchange views on many issues.

Did Palestinian envoy send any message to the Azerbaijani side and did
he express any wish of his government?

No, he above all thanked Azerbaijan for the very warm reception for
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, and said that Palestine, in turn, is
ready to fight for Azerbaijan and its just cause in solving the
Karabakh conflict on the international scene. Most importantly, this
is, after all, rule of law, the implementation of UN Security Council
resolutions in practice.

In your opinion, will Azerbaijan support recognition of Palestinian
State during a voting that will take place in September?

I think the issue is not on the agenda. Azerbaijan will be consulting
with all its allies in this regard. Apparently, the stand of
Azerbaijan will coincide with stand of other countries, that is, will
be based on decisions of the UN Security Council. The main thing in
this matter, which Azerbaijan is always concerned about, is the
situation of refugees, civilian deaths as a result of clashes, women
and children. Azerbaijan, which has felt the pain of this tragedy, is
always sympathetic to the pain of other countries and peoples.

Should Azerbaijan in cooperation with Palestine worry about
long-standing ties of the autonomy with the Armenian terrorists, who,
at least in the past were trained in bases of extremists in Palestine?

The situation has changed. Cooperation of Armenian terrorist
organizations with other similar organizations happened in the 1970s
and 80s. Today Armenian terrorism has changed the mask, geography of
its operations and focused its attacks on territory of Azerbaijan,
where a huge amount of terrorist attacks have been committed since the
late 1980s.

With regard to killings of Turkish diplomats, Armenian terrorist
organizations somehow merged with PKK in this matter. In other words,
activities of Armenian terrorists have shifted from the Middle East to
the South Caucasus and Turkey.

However, there is evidence that many Armenian militant groups in
Lebanon are cooperating with Hezbollah, and we must always keep this
in mind.

I will ask the question differently. During the period of activity of
Armenian terrorists, closely linked with the Armenian extremism,
Azerbaijan did not have such close relations with Arab world
benevolent towards Armenians. Now the situation is different and
leaders of Syria, Palestine visit Baku. Does this help stop aiding for
Armenian terrorists on the part of these countries, which had been in
the past?

Azerbaijan is trying to build normal relations with all Arab
countries. As a whole, Azerbaijan needs support of international
community, especially within the framework of international
organizations on the issue of Armenia’s aggression against our
territory.

However, Azerbaijan has normal relations with Israel and works with it
on many fronts. Therefore, in this case it is impossible to speak
about inclination in Azerbaijan’s foreign policy. In fact, it is based
on a partnership strategy, that is, we do not act in the spirit of
medieval psychology, but pursue a pragmatic policy based on
partnership, mutually beneficial cooperation. This suggests that
Azerbaijan, while maintaining normal relations with Israel, increases
its influence in the Arab world.

F.H.
News.Az