Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan’s interior ministry has dismissed an Iranian media report claiming that an Azerbaijani official had accused the United States of supporting drug trafficking.

The report, circulated by the semi-official Fars news agency, said that head of the Main Drug Combat Department Hazi Aslanov, in an address at a recent meeting of the Caspian littoral states’ experts in Iran, allegedly stated that the U.S. and its numerous officials are "the main force" patronizing drug sales worldwide.

"We are formally stating that major-general of the police Hazi Aslanov did not express any views concerning the U.S. whatsoever -- either in his address or when the meeting was sealed off to the media, as claimed," the ministry said in a statement. "We thereby decisively dismiss the allegations, carried by some media quoting the head of the Interior Ministry’s Main Drug Combat Department, which are provocative and aim to damage relations between Azerbaijan and the United States, the two friends and strategic allies. We are also disappointed that Fars, which is said to be a semi-official news agency, by airing such false, biased and libelous reports, has at the same time put forward a stance that is incompliant with the good neighborliness and friendly policies existing between Azerbaijan and Iran."