Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend K.Ramazanova / Azerbaijan i Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated on Thursday that his country would not allow any third country to use it to attack Iran , the official IRNA news agency reported.
"According to Azerbaijan's rules, no third country can use our country to attack another country," Mammadyarov told a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki .
Commenting on the Russia n President Vladimir Putin's proposal of Moscow and Washington jointly using the Gabala radar base in Azerbaijan, Mammadyarov stated that the cooperation in this regard, from both countries, will aid in the stability of the region.
For his part, Mottaki stated that Tehran was following the Gabala radar issue in both Baku and Moscow "carefully and with sensitivity," as it would be an issue concerning Iran's security.
Mottaki stated that the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov , clarified to him, on Wednesday, that Russia did not consider Iran as a threat and believes Iran should not be used to justify Washington's plans to deploy a missile shield system in Eastern Europe.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Lavrov stressed that if the United States had any suspicion of such a threat, it would eliminate the use of the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan, as proposed by Putin during the G8 summit earlier this month.
Lavrov also said that he had outlined Russia's proposals on the Gabala radar and its position on the missile shield to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mottaki
Russia is currently leasing the Gabala Radio Radar Station in Azerbaijan. The station is part of the Russian system in tracking the movement of ballistic missiles. The station was constructed during the rule of the former Soviet Union as one of the significant elements of the anti-missile system of the USSR. After Azerbaijan regained its independence and owned the station, Russia requested to use it. A ten-year agreement to rent the station was signed in 2002.