“We do not accept the allegations about the presence of any third forces near the Azerbaijan-Iran border, as well as the provocative attempts of these forces, because these views have no basis. In general, the existence of any forces in the territory of Azerbaijan, including terrorist elements, that could pose a threat to our state or neighboring countries, cannot even be a subject of discussion. Unfortunately, during the 44-day war, some parties made such completely baseless claims. We stated then, and we reiterate now, that such allegations are baseless and no evidence has been presented to the Azerbaijani side so far,” said spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Leyla Abdullayeva as she responded to media's question regarding the comments made by the Iranian Foreign Minister on Azerbaijan in an interview.

Leyla Abdullayeva said: “First of all, we would like to emphasize that, as Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein AmirAbdollahian said in an interview with a local television channel, relations between our peoples are at the highest level. Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are based on strong historical ties, friendship and cooperation.

The inviolability of internationally recognized borders is one of the fundamental principles that Azerbaijan has always been guided by. It is known that Azerbaijan has suffered for decades from the military occupation of part of its territories and the violation of its international borders. In particular, more than 130 km of our border with Iran has been under Armenian occupation for many years. Unfortunately, over the years, we have not heard such a strong reaction from the friendly Iranian state to the occupation of part of our border.

In general, Azerbaijan supports the establishment of relations with all countries on the basis of respect for each other's international borders, which is the firm position of our country. It is known that we, in particular, have stated our readiness to normalize relations with Armenia on the basis of this fundamental principle of international law and to begin negotiations on the delimitation of borders. The process of delimitation of the Azerbaijan-Armenia border is a bilateral issue, and the recent positive signals from the other side give hope for the constructive development of the process.

As for the idea of foreign intervention in Azerbaijan, we would like to emphasize that the Republic of Azerbaijan has always pursued an independent foreign policy based on national interests and has repeatedly proved it with concrete steps over the past 30 years. The development of friendly and good-neighborly relations with neighboring countries is one of the main priorities of our foreign policy, and we are taking continuous steps in this direction.

We would also like to note that Azerbaijan is very sensitive to the issue of Islamic solidarity and, as is well known, is distinguished by its active position in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Over the past decades, our country has focused on the issue of destruction, looting and insult of the Islamic cultural and historic heritage in the territories of Azerbaijan, and we appreciate the support of our just position on this issue by the OIC member states.

We believe that ending the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, the cessation of illegal actions of Armenia in the region, including large-scale stockpiling of weapons, illegal economic and other activities, drug smuggling, training of terrorists, insult and destruction of Islamic religious and cultural monuments and the return of Azerbaijani IDPs to their ancestral lands after 30 years of longing, ensuring stability and security in the region must be in the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”