Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has threatened Iran and advised not to “pry” its “nose” into Azerbaijan’s affairs.
“We [i.e., Azerbaijan] are showing good will. However, this does not mean that we will accept baseless accusations against us. I say this here on the banks of the Araks River, I tell the Azerbaijanis and the whole world that the baseless accusations against us will not go unanswered. We deny these allegations and demand submitting evidence,” he said.
“Recently, one of the provincial mullahs in Iran accused Azerbaijan. I was informed about that, and I said that we should not pay attention. Who is he? Just don’t pay attention to his words But then, unfortunately, the officials made baseless accusations against us. Allegedly, Azerbaijan brought Israel to those territories. We will not allow baseless accusations to be made against us.
Azerbaijan is a country that pursues an independent policy; everyone knows about that. We build relations with our neighbors and other countries on the basis of independent policy. Let no one interfere in our internal affairs. At what level we build relations with the country is our internal affair. We do not make demands against countries that have friendly relations with Armenia. Look how many supporters Armenia has; the Karabakh war is the proof of that. What? Should we be enemies with those countries? We respect the sovereign rights of each country, and demand that they respect our rights and do not interfere in our internal affairs. Such attempts will be in vain. I declare once again that the accusations made against us must have evidence. Let them come, see if there are any foreign citizens in the given region.
We have cleared the 130-kilometer-long Azerbaijani-Iranian border from the occupiers. It is necessary to investigate the processes that took place there. Or they say that Azerbaijan is not strengthening the Azerbaijani state there, but some foreign forces. This is an insult against us. We will never accept that. And everyone should know about that. From now on, Azerbaijan will plan its own foreign relations and internal affairs as it sees fit. Let no one pry their nose into our affairs,” Aliyev added.