Iran Willing to Reinvigorate Defense Cooperation with Azerbaijan

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan in a message to his Azeri counterpart Colonel General Zakir Hasanov reiterated Tehran’s interest in strengthening defense cooperation with Baku.
In his message submitted to Hasanov by Iranian Ambassador to Baku Mohsen Pakayeen on Tuesday, Dehqan invited the Azeri defense minister to visit Tehran, and underlined the necessity for strengthening defense cooperation between the two countries.

According to the Azeri defense ministry’s media section, Hasanov and Pakayeen also discussed the political and military situation of the region, the territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and ways to develop mutual cooperation.

Iran’s proposal for increasing defense cooperation with Azerbaijan comes as foreign powers are competing for influence in the soon-to-be-rich lands surrounding the Caspian Sea while Azerbaijan, potentially the richest of them, has allowed the US to open a military base in the country which raised Iran’s eyebrows.

Iran has recently enhanced efforts to boost political, economic and cultural ties and cooperation with the regional and neighboring countries, specially the Central Asian states.

In October 2012, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled to Baku to attend the 12th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). The Iranian and Azeri presidents met on the sidelines of the Summit, where both leaders reiterated the necessity for exploring new avenues to develop bilateral ties and cooperation.

Also, the Iranian officials have many times voiced Tehran’s readiness to help resolve the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Despite facing strong international pressure, the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders have failed to agree on the basic principles of ending the Karabakh conflict put forward by Russia, the United States, and France in 2011.

Armenia and Azerbaijan thus remain officially at war over Karabakh and the dispute is a major source of tension in the South Caucasus region wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey.

No country – not even Armenia – officially recognizes Karabakh as an independent state.

The mountainous rebel region has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since it broke free of Baku’s control after a fierce war in the early 1990s that killed 30,000 people.