Azernews.Az

BAKU – A senior Iranian military official has threatened Azerbaijan over alleged "disrespect for Islam", in a statement that drew fire from the Azerbaijani government.

Iranian General Staff Chief Seyed Hassan Firuzabadi early last week accused President Ilham Aliyev’s government of pursuing a policy incompliant with Islamic canons by violating believers’ rights and meeting "Zionists’ interests", Iranian media reported.

"The people’s awakening cannot be suppressed," Firuzabadi was quoted as saying. "Some neighboring Islamic countries with which we are maintaining friendly relations continue to ignore this friendship and are giving freedom to the Zionist regime, allowing it to interfere with their internal affairs. They are neglecting the laws of Islam…I hope that Ilham Aliyev will pay attention to such serious issues, which are the cornerstone of his government. Otherwise, he will face a grim fate."

The reports did not elaborate where and on what occasion Firuzabadi made the statement.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry issued a protest to Iran over "unreasonable statements" made by the Iranian official.

Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Bagher Bahrami was summoned to the ministry last Thursday and delivered a protest note by Deputy Foreign Minister Nadir Huseynov.

"Issuing such statements against the Azerbaijani people and government contradicts the existing friendly relations between the two countries and their mutual obligations," the protest note said.

The Foreign Ministry demanded that the Iranian side prevent such biased statements in the future.

The Iranian embassy in Baku has moved quickly to refute the reports, denying that Firuzabadi made the statements attributed to him. It said in a statement that the circulating reports resulted from "a media misunderstanding".

The head of Azerbaijan's border service, Elchin Guliyev, told the Baku-based APA news agency that Firuzabadi "should focus on neutralizing groups that smuggle drugs and other commodities" into Azerbaijan from Iran rather than "make such illiterate and unprofessional statements."