What does Iran want with Azerbaijan?
Apparently, this time the tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan have started due to Azerbaijan arresting an Iranian truck driver supplying goods to Armenia. Azerbaijan also started to charge fees on Iranian trucks going through a part of Southern Armenia that passes through parts of Azerbaijan.
Iranian officials have sought to try to handle the situation diplomatically, including through Ambassador Abbas Mousavi meeting President Ilham Aliyev’s senior Foreign Policy advisor Hikmet Hajiyev twice in a week.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian met his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov and in the former’s statements warned of Israeli attempts to sabotage relations.
The allegations from Azerbaijan, including from President Aliyev, which they haven’t proven at all, is that Iran is illegally sending goods to Armenian controlled parts of Karabakh. Even if it's true, where is the Azerbaijani government when Russia does the same thing on a much wider scale?
This was also happening amid trilateral exercises between Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan including in the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijani MPs openly threatened Iran that Pakistan would invade Iran.
Putting aside the fact that Bhikaristan can’t even protect against Baloch insurgents, cricket matches get cancelled because security is so bad, and China is getting tired of the fact that Chinese workers in Pakistan, as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are anything but safe, it is still an insanely belligerent statement by the Azerbaijani side. Other Azerbaijani MPs have threatened to cut Iran’s tail, which is rich for a country terrorized by Russia into stopping from going beyond Shusha in Karabakh.
Senior Iranian Parliament National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee MP Fada-Hossein Maleki called on Azerbaijan to stop its suspicious moves.
He further went to say “Armenia is an independent country and the Islamic Republic has trade with the region, and Baku should reconsider its recent actions so that no excuses be provided for countries seeking to create problems which will impinge on Baku more.”
Mohammad Reza Ahmadi Sangari, another Iranian MP, said in a tweet leaders of Baku have been “illusioned” by their Karabakh victory which was secured by “Turkish doping.”
“The age of your small country is less than that of our youngest lawmaker,” he said, adding that the Azerbaijani lawmakers should not discredit themselves by targeting Iran.
After all the belligerent rhetoric from Azerbaijan and the threats, Iran started to send troops and military equipment to the border amid growing Israeli activity along the border with Iran.
Azerbaijan has now called on Iran to pull back while Iran is saying it is our territory and we can do whatever drills we want on our territory.
The situation is developing as of this moment.