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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran Protests Azerbaijani 'Terrorist' Allegation |
| 2012-03-18 |
| [An Nahar] Iran on Saturday formally protested against an accusation by Azerbaijan that it ordered "terrorist acts" in the neighboring republic against Western and Israeli targets. Azerbaijan's ambassador to Tehran, Javanshir Akhundov, was summoned to the foreign ministry to hear an official denial that Iran was involved in plots Baku claimed were criminal masterminded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the state news agency IRNA reported, quoting a ministry statement. Baku made the charge on Wednesday. Its national security ministry said that 22 Azerbaijani citizens had been tossed in the calaboose on suspicion of cooperating with the Revolutionary Guards "to commit terrorist acts against the U.S., Israeli and other Western states' embassies and the embassies' employees." The Azerbaijani ministry said a Revolutionary Guards officer named Akbar Pakravesh gave the Azerbaijani recruits equipment and money and met them in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... and Moscow to avoid suspicion. IRNA said the Azerbaijani ambassador was "reminded" of efforts by Israel to discredit Iran through staged events. Iranian officials, it said, "are not pleased and are extremely regretful that the brotherly and friendly government of the Azerbaijani republic has entered into such a game." Tensions between Tehran and mainly Moslem but officially secular Azerbaijan have risen in recent months, with a series of arrests in Baku of attack plot suspects with alleged links to Tehran. |
| Posted by:Fred |