By Nigar Orujova

Iran supports Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi said at a meeting with Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku.

Vaezi noted the importance of returning of the refugees and IDPs to their lands.

He also stressed Iran attaches special importance to relations with Azerbaijan adding that President Ilham Aliyev’s recent visit to Tehran gave a push to the development of bilateral ties.

Mammadyarov also emphasized the importance of developing relations based on mutually beneficial cooperation, adding that friendship and partnership between the two countries contribute to strengthening regional peace and prosperity.

Touching upon the regional issues, the FM said Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan was a main threat to the development of the region. He stressed that Armenia must first withdraw its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories for the settlement of the conflict.

The sides also exchanged views on cooperation within the Joint Intergovernmental Commission and development of a legal framework.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war in 1992, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.



The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.



Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

Economic cooperation

During his two-day visit to Azerbaijan, Vaezi also dealt with final preparations for the Iranian President’s visit to Azerbaijan scheduled for November 12.

Vaezi met with Economy and Industry Minister Shahin Mustafayev to mull the current state and prospects of economic cooperation between the two countries, as well as works carried out under agreements achieved at the last meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission.

Mustafayev noted that relations between the two countries were steadily developing in political, economic and humanitarian fields.

The Iranian minister also expressed his country’s keenness to expand relations with Azerbaijan, and said there was a great capacity for boosting Azerbaijani-Iranian cooperation.

At a meeting with president of Azerbaijan`s state oil company Rovnag Abdullayev, the Iranian minister stressed that the forthcoming visit of President Hassan Rouhani to Azerbaijan will be an important step towards developing relations between the two countries.

“The visit of Hassan Rouhani will contribute significantly to the deepening of bilateral relations between Iran and Azerbaijan,” Vaezi said.

He also hailed cooperation between the two countries in the fields of oil and gas, adding there was huge potential to expand this interaction.

For his part, Abdullayev lauded the role of two sides’ officials' reciprocal visits in speeding up dialogue between energy companies of the two countries.