Tehran Denies Reports on Violation of Azeri Airspace
A report by Azeri television said Monday that an Iranian Air Force plane violated the airspace of neighboring Azerbaijan Republic at the weekend.
Calling the reports unsubstantiated rumors, Iran's Embassy in Baku said yesterday that the plane had not violated the Azeri airspace and that it was just hovering over the Caspian Sea whose boundaries are not yet determined. The embassy underlined that such claims could be tabled only after the definition of the disputed legal status of the oil-rich Caspian Sea.
It also denied reports that Iranian ambassador and his family members have hastily left Azerbaijan following the recent dispute between the two states. The Iranian envoy's family left Azerbaijan for Iran for summer holiday and the envoy himself left for Tehran last Saturday. The ambassador is to be back in Azerbaijan soon.
The longstanding tension between Iran and Azerbaijan reached a new peak early last week when an Iranian warship trained its guns on an Azeri research vessel searching for oil in a disputed part of the Caspian.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said later that his country was "ready to pursue dialogue" with Azerbaijan on the issue of how to divide up the Caspian Sea.