Iranian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers on Wednesday both underscored that the officials and institutions of the two countries must maintain communication to bolster bilateral ties and clear misunderstandings, a written statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry read.
Iran’s Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Azerbaijan’s Jeyhun Bayramov discussed bilateral relations and shared issues over a phone call, the Iranian ministry revealed.
Pointing out the recently strained relations between Tehran and Baku, Abdollahian said, he was “bothered by certain untrue statements” lately made about his country.
Tensions between the two neighbors recently spiked over targeted remarks in state media from both sides about one another, with Baku particularly expressing “discomfort” about the general attitude of the Iranian government toward Azerbaijan after the Armenian occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region ended, as well as the wide-scale military drills Tehran held on their shared border.
Bayramov remarked on Nov. 5 that certain “unfriendly comments and opinions” from Iranian media against Azerbaijan were “alarming” for Baku.
Likewise, the Iranian Foreign Ministry earlier that week conveyed the government’s displeasure to Azerbaijan’s envoy Ali Alizada about “an anti-Iranian propaganda” spread by Azerbaijani officials and media.
In retaliation, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry too later in the same week summoned Iranian Ambassador Sayed Abbas Mousavi to express Baku’s concerns about “the smear campaign” against its neighbor.
“Threatening rhetoric from high-ranking civilian and military officials is not in line with the spirit of the relations between the two countries,” the ministry said officials told Mousavi.
According to the Iranian ministry’s briefing, Abdollahian stressed to Bayramov that misunderstandings and differences of opinion between Tehran and Baku must be resolved through not media but “formal and diplomatic channels.”
“Raising these kinds of issues in media not only fails to produce a solution but also lays the groundwork for the enemy’s exploitation,” Abdollahian was quoted as saying.
The Iranian diplomat claimed developing ties with neighbors was a priority for Iran in its foreign policy and that Tehran wished to strengthen its relationship with Baku.
Abdollahian invited his Azerbaijani colleague Bayramov to visit Tehran for the "3+3" summit that will take place between three Caucasian states – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – and their three “big neighbors” – Russia, Türkiye and Iran about addressing issues of security and unblocking economic and transport ties in the Caucasus.
Referring to the meeting Azerbaijani and Iranian leaders held in the Kazakh capital of Astana last month, Bayramov remarked that talks between the two countries were “positive” and reiterated Baku’s readiness to reinforce its ties with Tehran and clarify any misunderstandings.
