Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.22 / Trend E. Ostapenko /
Iran's nuclear program should be resolved through negotiations and diplomacy, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said in his speech at the opening of the symposium on international relations on the topic "South Caucasus in a Changing World" in Baku.
"Iran is our closest neighbor, and we try to establish good neighborly relations," Mammadyarov said.
According to Mammadyarov, Azerbaijan and Iran shares many things.
"We use the Iranian territory to get to Nakhchivan. We are bounded with a number of joint projects: the Iranian side is now building a railroad in Astara," Mammadyarov said. "Periodically talks are held with the Iranian side, in particular with the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki."
Mammadyarov stressed that Azerbaijan's position on the Iranian nuclear program is clear: any country seeking to develop peaceful nuclear energy has right for it, and Iran cooperates with the IAEA, which deals with nuclear energy.
Iranian nuclear program causes concern since 2003, when the IAEA became aware of its secret activities. A number of states, including the U.S., believe that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and want to prevent this development.
However, Iran confirms that as a participant of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), it has every right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
So far, the UN Security Council has adopted six resolutions, four of which are aimed at imposing sanctions against Iran, requiring it to abandon uranium enrichment, and two resolutions containing warnings. Tehran denies the charges, saying its nuclear program has exclusively peaceful purposes.
Enriched uranium can be used to produce nuclear weapons. However, it is also necessary as fuel for nuclear power plants. However, so far, Iran has failed to prove the peaceful purposes of its nuclear program. The Iranian side's refusal not to let the IAEA inspectors enter the country and information on the secret nuclear facilities doubles these doubts.
In June, Iran refused two IAEA inspectors to enter the country. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that "the inspectors, who were declared as personae non grata" provided false information "about Iran's nuclear program and "prematurely disclosed official information.