Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan opposes a military solution of the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said.

Mammadyarov told Russia’s Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper that Azerbaijan, which neighbors on countries possessing nuclear weapons, deems the nuclear non-proliferation policy as crucial. But he added: "We staunchly disapprove of a military solution. As a close neighbor of Iran, which is home to a lot of Azerbaijanis -- more than there are in independent Azerbaijan -- we certainly do not accept such a solution."

Western nations, including the United States, accuse Iran of seeking to acquire an atomic bomb under the guise of its nuclear program, which Iran denies, saying it is aimed at generating civilian energy.

The minister noted that a substantial legal mechanism should be developed that would guarantee that "even if you own nuclear weapons, you can’t use them".

"As technologies develop and as other countries enter or seek to enter the ‘club’ of nuclear powers…the containment policy is no longer justified. It is necessary to shift from the nuclear containment policy to a policy of non-use of atomic weapons."

Concerns at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over Iran’s nuclear program emerged as early as in 2003. At the end of the year Tehran said it had halted uranium enrichment work, but later resumed the operations. The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on the country over its refusal to halt nuclear activities, but Iran countered that as a signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, it has the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.