A delegation from Azerbaijan, led by Hikmat Hajiyev, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and head of the Foreign Policy Department of the presidential administration, recently paid an official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
During the visit, Hajiyev met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and the meeting ended with an invitation for the Iranian president to visit Azerbaijan.
Even though this meeting went well, there are still several issues on which Azerbaijan and its southern neighbor, Iran, do not agree, making a normalization of relations between the two countries very difficult.
First, Iran has armed Armenia in the past and continues to operate through Armenia, supporting its narrative regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Iran refers to Azerbaijan as ‘little Satan’
One possible reason for this support of Armenia’s narrative is Azerbaijan’s relations with Israel, which Iran refers to as the “little Satan” and has long opposed.
Just recently, shortly after the friendly meeting between Hajiyev and Pezeshkian, several Iranian clerics spoke out against Azerbaijan on Iranian television, criticizing the methods used in Azerbaijan to detain Armenian war criminals.
Not only did Iranian media figures criticize Azerbaijan, but Iran’s ambassador to Armenia also slandered Azerbaijan and spread lies about it.
What triggered this burst of malicious lies? The Zangezur corridor, which connects Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, was recaptured by Azerbaijan during the Second Karabakh War. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke about the corridor, claiming that Azerbaijan’s control over it would be perceived as a threat to Iran.
Despite Iran’s inconsistencies regarding its relationship with Azerbaijan, it seems that Azerbaijan is not abandoning its aspiration to normalize relations with Iran so that the mullahs won’t be a threat to it.
However, Azerbaijan is not the problematic one in this relationship, as Iran continues trying to influence the South Caucasus and steer the political relations in the region to benefit its interests through interference in Azerbaijan’s affairs.
It is strange to see how Iran continues to support Armenia, despite Armenia’s open and close relations with Western countries, yet continues to chastise Azerbaijan for not aligning with its anti-Israel stance. What is the ideological difference in the eyes of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards?
Iran does not respect Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and continually attempts to meddle in both Azerbaijan’s domestic and foreign affairs. The establishment of spy networks and recruitment of Azerbaijani agents is a prime example of this, and we have not even touched on Iran’s attempts to carry out attacks within Azerbaijan, an action without any parallel from Azerbaijan’s side. Indeed, the attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Iran and the assassination attempt targeting an Azerbaijani member of parliament make it an uphill struggle for Azerbaijan to have friendly relations with Iran, even though Azerbaijan and Iran have many things in common.
Iran and Azerbaijan share a land border, they follow the same religion, and one of the largest minorities in Iran is Azerbaijani. In fact, both Khamenei and Pezeshkian have Azerbaijani roots, so it is hard to argue that these two countries do not have a way of finding common ground. Given all the shared elements between the two countries, they have many reasons to collaborate instead of working against each other.
The two countries could cooperate on the international North-South Transport Corridor, which serves as a major route between Europe and Asia, and they could collaborate on the construction of the Zangezur corridor, which would bring stability to the region and reduce tensions between neighboring states. Through their cooperation, the two countries could upgrade infrastructure along the trade routes under their influence and benefit even more from this project.
In Azerbaijan, it has been repeatedly emphasized that the country seeks good relations with all its neighbors, including the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, good neighborly relations must be based on mutual respect, noninterference in each other’s internal affairs, and recognition of each other’s sovereignty.
One could argue that the ball is in Iran’s court since Azerbaijan has never provoked Iran militarily and has never launched a military operation against Iran. Azerbaijan continues to reach out to Iran for peace but is repeatedly disappointed.
Iran’s actions in its relationship with Azerbaijan indicate that Iran is not willing to relinquish its geopolitical ambitions in the South Caucasus, particularly in Azerbaijan.
Source » jpost