Azernews.Az

A senior Azerbaijani official has said there are hostile forces in neighboring Iran that are opposed to the two countries’ maintaining normal relations and are making attempts to undermine them.
Commenting on the burning of the Azerbaijani flag during recent protests held in Iran, Ali Hasanov, the head of the Presidential Administration socio-political department, said Baku was working to counter such attempts, though he expressed disappointment that Iran has not done enough in this area.
Hasanov noted that some reports aired by Iran’s Seher TV channel, which is known for its anti-Azerbaijan slant, aim to create socio-political tension in Azerbaijan and to distort the developments ongoing in the country. "As a state, we are raising our voice against such attempts and stating our discontent to relevant entities."
Media reports about the flag incident in Iran have sparked angry protests in Baku. Scores of protesters picketed the Iranian embassy to condemn earlier protests held outside Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran and the country’s general consulate in Tabriz, an Iranian city densely populated by Azerbaijanis. Those protests followed the Israeli foreign minister’s visit to Azerbaijan in which Baku was accused of serving the Zionist regime and US policies. The protesters in Iran reportedly burnt the Azerbaijani flag and chanted slogans defying the country’s independence.
However, Mahammad Bagir Bahrami, the Iranian Ambassador in Baku, has dismissed the reports about the desecration of the Azerbaijani flag, saying the Iranian side had video-taped the developments and there was no footage showing the flag burning outside the Azerbaijani consulate. Bahrami added that that when he asked local executive officials about the flag incident in Tabriz, they were surprised and called this "a lie".*