BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 27. The President of Iran visited Azerbaijan. Actually, he visited Azerbaijan twice: first on an official visit, and second, he attended the summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization in the liberated Karabakh, in the city of Khankendi. We established very good working relations with him, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Saudi TV channel Al-Arabiya, Trend reports.
Yes, you're absolutely right. He's Azerbaijani. He has the same blood as I do. We speak the same language. We don't need interpreters. Actually, he demonstrated his knowledge of Azerbaijani poetry during one of the public events here, and he doesn't need any notes. He's a very talented person.
President Ilham Aliyev noted that this is really a good opportunity.
''I think our personal relations, as well as the relations between his administration and mine, are very constructive and very friendly. With respect to the official position of Iran toward the new development, we consider it very reasonable and very positive. When I say official position, I mean the position of the president and the Foreign Minister. This is the official position,'' the head of state noted.
The President Ilham Aliyev stressed that we are basing our policy on those politicians who have been elected by the people of Iran and have a mandate to implement their duties. And this is the president.
There have been certain voices of some former officials, who are now named as advisors. I don't know what kind of advice they give. Immediately, that reaction was very…
He noted that this position is not important to us at all.
It has zero importance because our interstate relations are between the governments, between the presidents, and between the foreign ministers. Therefore, we totally ignore these false narratives, which have been articulated by so-called advisors. For us, everything is clear. The position of the president is absolutely reasonable and is based on the fact that the Zangezur Corridor is not in any way a threat to Iran. There have been a lot of rumors in some media and on some internet sites that Azerbaijan is planning to occupy Zangezur, or that Azerbaijan is planning to cut the Iranian-Armenian border. That was absolutely false. We had no such intention. Again, if we wanted to do it, we would have done it in November 2020. It was very easy to do, and throughout all these five years, it was very easy to do. It's only 40 kilometers. From a military point of view, it would not take much time. From both sides — from Nakhchivan and from the mainland — you could take it.
President Ilham Aliyev noted that, of course, of course. And everybody knows it. And even those who give bad advice know that we have this power.
''We didn't do it because we are not aggressors. We are not a country which occupies. We are a people and a country which liberates, and that's what we've done. And our war was a just war, a liberation war, a war on our soil, and a war of restoration of justice. So from this point of view, I think that all these rumors that we were planning to cut the Armenian-Iranian border are absolutely groundless. Everybody knows that,'' President Ilham Aliyev said.