Azernews.Az

BAKU – An Azerbaijani analyst has played down a recent Russian media report saying the United States granted Azerbaijan approval to liberate its Armenia-occupied territories.

"The U.S. has not and cannot grant its approval for a military solution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict but would not oppose it if Azerbaijan launches military action to free its occupied regions," Mubariz Ahmadoghlu said while commenting on Argumenti Nedeli newspaper’s story.

The article claimed that the US administration has granted Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev carte blanche to liberate the occupied territories and would not impede military action to settle the long-standing Karabakh conflict. In return, the U.S. is asking President Aliyev to grant it the right to use Azerbaijan’s territory as a foothold for an attack on Iran, the Russian weekly said quoting its sources.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict for two decades. Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, since a war in the early 1990s. Peace talks, brokered by the U.S., along with Russia and France, began after the signing of a shaky cease-fire in 1994.

Regarding a possible use of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, for a US attack on Iran, Ahmadoghlu said this is impossible.

"Most of that territory has been uncontrolled for over 20 years, and Armenian military bases have been stationed in a small area there. Vacating Nagorno Karabakh and other occupied regions and making that territory suitable for stationing US troops’ bases would require at least five years. But over those years, the issue of Iran’s nuclear program will be resolved -- regardless of either peace talks or a US military incursion."

Iran faces increased pressure from the West over its controversial nuclear program that Israel, the United States and others contend is intended for nuclear weapons making. Tehran denies the charge, insisting the program is for peaceful purposes only, such as generating power.