Azernews.Az

WASHINGTON, D.C. – WikiLeaks, an organization revealing secret documents, has released the US government’s alleged cables citing a slew of countries including Azerbaijan, leaking confidential information to world media and sparking controversy.

WikiLeaks claimed that US Charge D’Affairs in Azerbaijan Jason Hyland wrote in a letter to the State Department on December 20, 2006 that the Azerbaijani government was concerned over the Iran nuclear issue.

The letter said that Azerbaijan had voiced discontent with the United States’ policy on Iran. President Ilham Aliyev said in a conversation with the US ambassador that Iran was turning into a powerful and stable country. President Aliyev was also quoted as saying that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had "burnt the bridges" on the nuclear issue and warned him that "wherever Iran is struck from, it will hit there". President Aliyev and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov are said to have noted during their meetings with the US ambassador that they were expecting provocations of any kind from neighboring Iran.

On March 6, 2009, a secret cable signed by US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse allegedly cited businessmen implicated in laundering Iranian money in Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani institutions that aided this activity. The alleged letter refers to Bank Melli Iran, Bank of Baku, Royal Bank and Khalg Bank as well as a number of Azerbaijani ministers and security officials.

Another confidential letter ascribed to Ambassador Derse and sent on the same date says that the Baku-based INSULTEC company, set up by an individual with close business ties to oil giant BP, was suspected of delivering supplies to Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant.

Derse also reportedly wrote in June 2009 that during discussions in May that year held by 16 US military officials in Baku, Azerbaijani President’s aide on military issues Vahid Aliyev spoke about the dangers of stirring up Iranian minorities; the apparent quadrupling in first quarter 2009 (compared to first quarter 2008) seizures in Azerbaijan of Iranian-transited heroin; and scepticism about Iranian gas export contracts, related by industry participants at the recently completed Baku oil and gas show.

US Charge D’Affairs Donald Lieu is said to have sent the most recent letter concerning Azerbaijan on February 25, 2010. It allegedly discloses the full text of the February 23 meeting between US Undersecretary of State William Burns and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The Guardian reported that President Aliyev had said he supported economic isolation of Iran and believed it could be effective if enforced by a broad coalition.

During the hour-long meeting with President Aliyev, Burns explained in detail the steps the U.S. had taken to initiate dialogue with Tehran and support the Tehran Research Reactor initiative. He ended by noting that, given the rejection of these overtures, the U.S. would move forward with another UNSC resolution that included new sanctions targeting the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Aliyev allegedly responded that although the visible side of Azerbaijan's relations with Iran appears normal, the substance was very different. "I do not exclude that relations will be become more difficult," the President added.

"(German Chancellor) Merkel was very firm with me on Iran, trying to persuade me. I told her, 'No need,'" the President recalled.

Aliyev said that he was supportive of Iran's economic isolation and believed it could work if the international community worked together. He said that earlier sanctions observance had been spotty with many European energy companies working in Iran. "Statoil supports Iran more than it supports us!" he allegedly complained. He noted that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev once told him that Russia did not want the Americans to squeeze Iran, but also did not want a nuclear Iran.

President Aliyev reportedly said that Iranian provocations in Azerbaijan were on the rise. He specifically cited not only the financing of radical Islamic groups and Hezbollah terrorists, but also