(MENAFN- AzerNews)
Rena Murshud read more Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's first state visit to
Azerbaijan after being elected as president has ended. In addition
to discussing many important issues, serious messages were also
given to other countries. It is no coincidence that during the
Turkish President's stay in Baku, the Iranian Foreign Ministry
voiced its proposal regarding the restoration of frozen diplomatic
relations. This can be considered as a serious reaction of the
Iranian side to the processes.
According to the political analyst Sadraddin Soltan, head of the
Middle East Research think tank, Iran's initiative is related to
its intolerance to accept Turkiye's growing influence in the
region.
"The Turkish president's statement regarding the visit to Baku
and the opening of the Zangazur Corridor certainly worries Iran.
Because Iran is one of the countries that does not want the opening
of the corridor," the expert said.
In his comment for Azernews , Sadraddin Soltan
also shed some light on the Iranian official's statement regarding
the re-opening of the embassy.
"The statement regarding the reopening of the embassy are a
continuation of the Iranian government's policy of restoring and
developing relations with neighboring and other Muslim countries.
Because the Iranian authorities have always engaged in illegal
disruptive activities against neighboring and non-neighboring
countries. The regime pretends to have good relations with Muslim
countries from now on. In this regard, Iran's desire to restore
relations with Azerbaijan stems from the jealousy of the Turkish
leadership regarding the state visit to Azerbaijan," S.Soltan
added.
The think tank head also spoke about the prospects of Iran's
future cooperation with Azerbaijan in large-scale projects,
including in the field of diplomacy.
"Earlier, it was proposed that the Iranian side could
participate in many projects, for example, hydrocarbon projects
passing through the territory of Azerbaijan, including the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main oil and gas export pipeline. In the
present case, it is not possible for Iran to participate in big
projects such as TAP, TANAP, TransCaspian. For this, Iran must
comply with some conditions. She should normalize relations with
Azerbaijan, stop disruptive activities in the region, and most
importantly, she should follow the offers and conditions of the
Western bloc, led by the United States. In addition, the Iranian
side should abandon its suspicious nuclear program, cooperate with
the International Atomic Energy Agency and provide transparency in
this regard. The Iranian side must respect human rights and
territorial integrity of the neighboring states such as Syria,
Iraq, Yemen, Palestine, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, etc. and stop the
interference. Besides, its disruptive and terrorist activities must
be stopped in Central Asia. The attitude towards Israel and the US
should change. If these conditions are met, Iran can participate in
regional energy projects. Even new energy project lines can pass in
their region. In the near future, as long as the regime in Iran is
in power, it is very unlikely that Iran will participate in
regional projects," the expert said.
He also touched upon the cooperation between Iran and Armenia in
the field of energy and noted that in the current situation, Iran
does not have the potential to supply Iran with energy.
"There is an agreement between Iran and Armenia in this
direction. Iran provides natural gas to Armenia, and Armenia
provides electricity to Iran in return. For this, Armenia plans to
build power plant blocks in the territory of the country. The
existing Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant is not large enough to export
enough electricity to Iran. The reason is that the country that
built the nuclear power plant is Russia, and secondly, Russia is
not interested in working with the current government in this
direction. The unstable position of the political power of Armenia
hinders investment flow in this country. For this reason, the
probability of not only mutual implementation of the project being
talked about, but also its implementation in general is close to
zero. Because currently, there is no country that provides
financial aid to Armenia, whose political and economic power is at
risk."
In conclusion, the expert talked about the negotiations between
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and Iran. He noted
that if Iran does not accept Baku's conditions, it is impossible to
melt the frozen diplomatic relations between the two countries.
"Negotiations are being conducted between Azerbaijan and Iran's
MFA in various directions. Iran's ambassador to Azerbaijan, Abbas
Mosevi, held meetings with various state institutions in Baku and
tried to show goodwill towards Azerbaijan, but official Baku does
not trust Iran's approach. Because Iran did not accept a number of
conditions offered by Azerbaijan. Ensuring the security of
Azerbaijan's embassies in Iran, investigating the terrorist crime
committed in January, even presenting this terrorist act under the
name of "family issue", as well as putting pressure on the country
through the "Huseiniyyun" terrorist organization created by the
IRGC, reduces Azerbaijan's trust in Iran," the expert
underlined.
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Rena Murshud is AzerNews' staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @r enatagiyeva