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Former Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan: â€œIran should not worry about Azerbaijanâ€™s establishing relations with Israelâ€

16 February 2010 12:34 (UTC +04:00)

President Ilham Aliyev has stated several times that Azerbaijanâ€™s relations with other countries are not against the third countries, including Iran,â€ former Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan Afshar Suleymani told APA. According to him, when the reports spread that the US will use Azerbaijanâ€™s territory to attack Iran, Ilham Aliyev transparently demonstrated his position and said he would not give the permission to anybody.

Commenting on the concerns in Iran over Azerbaijanâ€™s relations with Israel, Afshar Suleymani said the countriesâ€™ foreign policies differed from one another.

He noted that Azerbaijan had chosen the way of integration into Europe.
â€œIran has stated that it does not recognize Israel as a state. These are different policies. Iran does not have relations with the US, Azerbaijan has broad relations with America. I think it is the independent affair of any country to establish relations with others on condition that it is not against the third countries. Of course, Iran is Azerbaijanâ€™s neighbor, we have historical and cultural relations. I always say that these are two brothers, one nation,â€ he said.

Afshar Suleymani also said he did not want Azerbaijan-Israel relations to be against Muslims.
â€œAzerbaijan is the member of the Organization of Islamic Conference. This membership lays a number of duties on Azerbaijan. Azerbaijanâ€™s relations with the Muslim world have developed recently. It will be good if these relations are also established with the Palestinian Authority. It is known that Mahmoud Abbas will visit Azerbaijan soon. I hope this visit will contribute to these relations,â€ he said.