Iran's recent provocation in Tabriz aims to pressure Azerbaijan's diplomatic office: Think Tank head

Stakes are high in the region as tensions between Azerbaijan and Iran are getting hotter as time passes.

Despite the relations between the two countries have always been rocky but never ended with break-off, following the anti-Azerbaijani remarks of Iranian officials, the conduction of drills on the Iranian-Azerbaijani border, the terror attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Iran.

Hence for Tehran supporting Baku remains on paper in its lasting conflict with Armenia, while it shows up itself a known Yerevan ally and doesn’t abstain from demonstrating it.

During the 44 days Patriotic War, Iran bestowed significant material aid to Armenia and has repeatedly called against what it calls “changing borders in the Caucasus’’, which it referred to as its “red line”. In the guise of care for Armenian borders, Iran simply cares about itself, as the new realities emerging after Azerbaijan’s victory demonstrated the country from a never seen before side of a winner, which can’t but intimate the neighboring Tehran.

As a follow-up of Iran’s frequenting anti-Azerbaijani statements, the sending of a note verbale by Iranian Embassy in Baku to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry calling to take “appropriate measures to prevent anti-Iranian broadcasts and articles in the Azerbaijani media” is nothing but an attempt to twist the perspectives in the region. In turn, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry summoned Iranian Ambassador Seyyed Abbas Mousavi to the ministry and informed him about the insulting, false, defamatory and biased information about Azerbaijan spread in the Iranian media.

In a comment to Azernews, political analyst, head of Central Asia and the Middle East think tank Sadraddin Soltan talked about the continuous tensions, noting that the diplomatic crisis has spiraled after the terror attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran on January 27.

According to Soltan, the situation between the two countries keeps aggravating and the chances of them calming down are small. However, he also added that after a meeting between Iranian and Russian foreign ministers, the latter concluded that the tensions between Azerbaijan and Iran are temporary and believed that they will be solved soon. Hence, the pundit stressed that there could be a possibility that the tensions could resolve with the help of Turkiye and Russia. However, he added that all of Iran’s recent acts indicate that the country chooses to further aggravate the ties with Azerbaijan.

Talking about the picket held by Iran’s terrorist Huseyniyun organization in front of the Azerbaijani Consulate General in Tabriz, the think tank head noted that such provocation is an indication that Iran wants to pressure Azerbaijan's diplomatic office.

“Iran is deliberately trying to exacerbate the bilateral diplomatic ties with an attempt to shut down the Azerbaijani Consulate General in Tabriz as it believes that the consulate works for Israel,” Soltan remarked.

According to him, Iran is not using its people in these provocations but instead is doing so with the Huseyniyun organization, which consists of what pose as Azerbaijanis working or studying in Iran.

Regarding the question of whether the provocation in front of the consulate office could be considered terrorism, Soltanov remarked that the majority of organizations created by the Iranian government are involved in terrorism.

“For example, Hezbollah in Lebanon was created and funded by Iran and is recognized as a terroristic organization in many countries. Palestine’s Islamic Jihad organization was founded in the 1970s and funded by Iran is also considered terroristic. Iran’s IRGC (SEPAH) is also considered to be a terroristic organization,” he emphasized.

The analyst concluded that a part of the policy conducted by the Huseyniyun organization could potentially be involved in terrorism as they also have access to arms. Thus, the perspectives of this organization created by the Iranian regime could never be civil.