Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Azerbaijan
Newsline: U.S. Embassy officials among the targets of alleged Iran-linked assassination plots in Azerbaijan
In November, the tide of daily cable traffic to the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan brought a chilling message for Ambassador Matthew Bryza, then the top U.S. diplomat to the small Central Asian country. A plot to kill Americans had been uncovered, the message read, and embassy officials were on the target list. The details, scant at first, became clearer as intelligence agencies from both countries stepped up their probe. The plot had two strands, U.S. officials learned, one involving snipers with silencer-equipped rifles and the other a car bomb, apparently intended to kill embassy employees or members of their families. Both strands could be traced back to the same place, the officials were told: Azerbaijan’s southern neighbor, Iran. The threat, many details of which were never made public, appeared to recede after Azerbaijani authorities rounded up nearly two dozen people in waves of arrests early this year. Precisely who ordered the hits, and why, was never conclusively determined. But U.S. and Middle Eastern officials now see the attempts as part of a broader campaign by Iran-linked operatives to kill foreign diplomats in at least seven countries over a span of 13 months. The targets have included two Saudi officials, a half-dozen Israelis and — in the Azerbaijan case — several Americans, the officials say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-officials-among-the-targets-of-iran-linked-assassination-plots/2012/05/27/gJQAHlAOvU_story.html
Newsline: Iran recalls Azerbaijan ambassador over Eurovision ‘gay parade
The Islamic Republic said it had withdrawn its ambassador from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan that hosts the event on Saturday, “in connection with the insulting of religious saints”. Azerbaijan’s hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest – a flamboyant annual pageant of pop music from around Europe – has been condemned by some Iranian clerics and MPs who have referred to a “gay parade” – although no such event is planned. A senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Sobhani, issued a statement urging Muslims in the region to protest what he described as anti-Islamic behaviour by Azerbaijan’s government. “We heard that the government of Azerbaijan is hosting the international Eurovision Song Contest and that during this contest there will also be a gay parade,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted the cleric as saying. Iran was angered by subsequent anti-Iranian protests in the Azerbaijan capital Baku, where demonstrators carried pictures of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and banners that read “Azerbaijan does not need clerics – homosexuals!”
http://www.iranian.com/main/news/2012/05/22/iran-recalls-azerbaijan-ambassador-over-eurovision-gay-parade
Newsline: Iran recalls its envoy in Baku due to ‘insulting of Ayatollah Khamenei’
Official Tehran has recalled its ambassador in Azerbaijan Mohammad Bagher Bahrami. The statement came from Salamnews citing diplomatic sources. As a reason of the withdrawal, the Iranian party says that the participants of the recent protest outside the Iranian embassy in Baku insulted the spiritual leader of the country Ayatollah Khamenei. The ambassador has supposedly been called to Tehran for consultations. A number of protests against the anti-Azerbaijani policy of Tehran and violation of the rights of millions of Azerbaijanis in this country were held outside the Iranian embassy in Baku last week. The photos of the president and the spiritual leader of Iran with critical comments were used during the protest.
http://www.news.az/articles/politics/60736
Newsline: US embassy demands investigation of attacks on Azeri journalists
The US embassy to Azerbaijan urges the government of the country to start immediate investigation and hold accountable the persons that are responsible for the attacks against journalist Idrak Abbasov. On 18 April, the employee of the Zerkalo newspaper and Institute of Reporters Freedom and Security Idrak Abbasov was subjected to physical pressure as he was recording the process of demolition of houses and clashes between local residents and officials of the SOCAR security services in Sulutapa. Correspondent of the Yeni Musavat newspaper Gunay Musayeva also suffered as a result of the incident. President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Rovnag Abdullayev signed an order to create the commission which will deal with the investigation.
http://www.news.az/articles/politics/58627
Newsline: US official to discuss embassy security in Baku
US Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Safety Erick Boswell is to pay a visit to Azerbaijan next week. Boswell overseas programs for provision of security of American state officials and facilities abroad to ensure their protection from terror and other attacks and of the confidential information of these facilities. During the upcoming Baku talks, the parties will speak about the recent neutralization by Azerbaijani security bodies of a group of persons accused of preparation of terror attacks against US and Israeli citizens in Azerbaijan at the order of Iranian security bodies.
http://www.news.az/articles/politics/57148
Newsline: Azerbaijan Arrests 22 Suspected of Plotting US, Israel Embassy Attacks
Azerbaijan arrested 22 people on suspicion of plotting attacks on the US and Israeli embassies in Baku on behalf of neighboring Iran, the national security ministry said Wednesday. “Twenty-two citizens of Azerbaijan have been arrested by the national security ministry for cooperating with the Iranian Sepah,” its statement said, referring to the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards. “On orders of the Sepah they were to commit terrorist acts against the US, Israeli and other Western states’ embassies and the embassies’ employees,” it said. The ministry said that the suspects were recruited from 1999 onwards and trained in the use of weapons and spy techniques at military camps in Iran to enable them to gather information on foreign embassies, organizations and companies in Azerbaijan and stage attacks. “Firearms, cartridges, explosives and espionage equipment were found during the arrest,” the statement said, without specifying when or how the arrests were made. Tensions between the Islamic republic and mainly Muslim but officially secular Azerbaijan have risen in recent months, with a series of arrests in Baku of terror plot suspects with alleged links to Tehran. Iran has also been angered by ex-Soviet Azerbaijan’s ties to Israel and its reported purchase of hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons from the Jewish state.
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpps/news/azerbaijan-arrests-suspected-of-plotting-attacks-dpgonc-20120314-fc_18527413
Newsline: French envoy’s wife accused of possession of cocaine
Wife of French Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Serbian playwright Biljana Srbljanovic is being accused with possession of cocaine. The Belgrade Court is still unable to issue official indictment because Srbljanovic gave wrong addresses to police and the court. Spokesperson for the Belgrade Court Dusitsa Ristic said that because an indictment has not been submitted the court can not start the process. Srbljanovic didn’t show her address because she doesn’t want to overshadow career of her husband Gabriel Keller, the former French Ambassador to Serbia and the current French Ambassador to Azerbaijan. Srbljanovic was detained on December 1, 2011 when buying cocaine from street dealers. According to police, she bought cocaine twice paying 60 euros. The French embassy in Azerbaijan didn’t make comment on the Serbian press reports. Srbljanovic is a famous playwright. Her five plays have been translated into 20 languages and put on stage by more than 50 theaters in Europe and America. Srbljanovic was a member of the Political Council of the Liberal Democratic Party and in 2008 and one of the candidates for Mayor of Belgrade.
http://www.en.sia.az/index.php?action=static_detail&static_id=208362
Newsline: Azerbaijan to open embassy in Bagdad
The Azerbaijani Embassy in Iraq will be opened this year, Iraqi Regional Development Minister Turkhan Mufti said. According to the minister, Iraq is interested in the development of relations with Azerbaijan and considers it to be close, brotherly and friendly country in the region. The Iraqi official also clarified the issue of opening of direct flights from Baku to the cities of Iraq. In particular, he noted that it was planned first of all to open a route from Baku to Bagdad and then there was a possibility of opening a flight from Baku to the city of Najaf, where the holy places are located. Referring to the deterioration of the Iraq-Turkey relations, the minister said that Turkey was a great neighbor of Iraq. “The two countries have good relations, there are more than 40 bilateral agreements and therefore the existing misunderstanding will not affect our strategic relationship with Turkey,” the minister said.
http://www.news.az/articles/politics/55898
Commentary: Diplomats or intelligence officers?
A tension has been dominating recent days in Iranian-Azerbaijani relations. One of the main reasons of this tension is recent regular statements of Iranian official circles and religious figures about Azerbaijan, their unfounded accusations and attempts to meddle in the country’s internal affairs. The Iranian state, violating the simplest rights of over 30m fellow countrymen living in the South Azerbaijan, wants to realize its dirty intentions also in the Northern Azerbaijan. Accusing Azerbaijan of cooperation with Israel, Iran acts upon “Muslim initiative” and declares non-recognition of Israel as a state due to the Palestine issue. But a visible fact destroys even this position of Iran. If Iran is such an “initiator”, why has it formed close relations with Armenia – a country which has occupied the lands of the Muslim country? Today it’s no secret that without Iran’s political and economic support, Armenia to date would not be able to continue its occupation policy. If Iran timely closed its borders with invader Armenia like Turkey did, today the situation in the Karabakh settlement process would be different. Recently, the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry neutralized a terrorist group which later was known to have ties with Iranian special services. Time by time, official reports come up about the plans of Iranian special services to realize acts in Azerbaijan and their prevention. And this shows that the Iranian intelligence is active in the Azerbaijani direction. The number of employees working in Iranian diplomatic representations in Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani diplomatic representations in Iran, as well as employees working in Iranian organizations operating in Azerbaijan under diffident names causes some suspicion. Today the number of Iranian citizens working in the diplomatic corpus and other Iranian structures in Azerbaijan is 97. Of them, 22 are diplomats, while 51 are technical staff. The number of employees of Azerbaijani representations in Iran is 24. Of them 13 are diplomats and 11 are technical staff.
http://www.news.az/articles/politics/55764
Newsline: Iran’s Foreign Ministry summons Azerbaijani Ambassador to protest ‘Creeping Zionist Influence’ In Caucasus
Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Azerbaijani Ambassador Javanshir Akhundov to explain Azerbaijan’s purchase of some $1.6 billion of weapons from Israel. The summons came in response to recent reports that Israel is selling drones, antiaircraft missiles and missile defense systems to Azerbaijan. Akhundov confirmed the purchase but said Azerbaijan needed the weapons to “liberate occupied Azerbaijani land,” a clear reference to Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave currently occupied by pro-Armenian political authorities. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi also warned Akhundov not to allow Israel to use Azerbaijani territory as a safe haven to launch “terrorist acts” against Iran. Earlier this month Iran accused Azerbaijan of allowing Israeli spies to use Azerbaijani territory, a charge Baku rejected as “slander.” Azerbaijan last week arrested an unspecified number of people Baku said were linked to Iran who were planning attacks in Azerbaijan. Those arrests came about the same time there were reported attempts to kill Israeli diplomats in India, Thailand and Georgia. On February 28, Iranian ambassador to Armenia Seyid Ali Saqqaiyan was quoted by Iran’s Fars news agency as saying in a speech that there is a “creeping influence of Zionists and foreigners in the South Caucasus region.” Saqqaiyan spoke of the “activities of the enemy in Azerbaijan over the recent period.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan_israel_iran_armenia_missiles_drones/24499507.html
