Azerbaijan is not Israel's "secret staging ground", embassy says

Azerbaijan, Baku, April 2 /Trend/

Azerbaijani embassy in Washington has strongly denied the report by Foreign Policy magazine that Azerbaijan had allegedly provided Israel with its airfields near the border with Iran.

"I was most surprised to read a very provocative and unsubstantiated article by Mark Perry in your publication ("Israel's Secret Staging Ground"). The author arrives at wide ranging allegations based on unnamed sources and rather convoluted commentary. Clearly upset about Azerbaijan's friendly relations with Israel, Perry, for some reason, equates a historic friendship between the Azerbaijani and Jewish people into preparing for a war against Iran", Nargiz Gurbanova, a counselor at Azerbaijan's embassy in Washington, said Monday in an article in the Foreign Policy.

According to her, "this unreasonable accusation makes no sense in terms of geography -- Azerbaijan doesn't border Israel and contradicts the clearly stated policy of Azerbaijan not to allow use of its territory against any neighbour".

"In fact, Azerbaijan's commitment to promoting regional peace has been demonstrated by its involvement in the ongoing talks with Armenia for the last two decades in spite of the latter's illegal occupation of the internationally recognized Azerbaijani lands. Perry's article is an interesting piece of fiction. Whether it was driven by a special political agenda or vivid imagination, your publication seems as an odd choice for such speculative writing", Gurbanova pointed out.

Azerbaijani Defence Ministry earlier denied the report. A spokesman for the Ministry Teymur Abdullayev said that the article was baseless and called it "an invention".

Earlier, Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Social and Political Department Chief Ali Hasanov told media that Azerbaijan's territory will never be used for any actions against Iran.