Azernews.Az

An Azerbaijani presidential aide has said there is ``unreal, fake clergy`` in Iran trying to blame Azerbaijan for affairs ``not inherent`` to it.

``They bring charges of homosexuality,`` Ali Hasanov, the Presidential Administration`s department head, said at a recent conference. ``We refute this and tell the Iranian clergy that it is a shame that you pray, stretch out your hands to God and begin to lie immediately after leaving the mosque…People do not need such fake clergy.``

Hasanov said the Azerbaijani people ``will not cooperate`` with such clergy.

``A person stretching his hands to Allah, reading the Koran and inspiring people to Islam must not lie after leaving the mosque,`` he said. ``Now they say that they have frightened Azerbaijan and prevented the holding of a gay parade here, as if we were preparing to hold such a parade.``

Azerbaijani-Iranian relations have recently soured. Tension emerged after the rumors that a group of foreigners was going to organize a gay parade in Baku during the Eurovision song contest in late May. Afterwards, anti-Azerbaijani demonstrations were held in neighboring Iran urging to ban a gay parade and not to conduct the song contest, which allegedly contradicts Islamic values.

Though Baku repeatedly said it would not allow holding such a parade in the capital city, the anti-Azerbaijani campaign in Iran did not stop, and protests were held outside the Azerbaijani consulate in Tabriz. In response, protesters rallied in front of Iran`s embassy in Baku, urging to stop the hostile campaign. Iran was angered by subsequent anti-Iranian protests in Baku, where demonstrators carried pictures of Iran`s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and alleged banners reading ``Azerbaijan does not need clerics-homosexuals!``

Further, Iran recalled its ambassador, Mohammad Bagher Bahrami, to Tehran for consultations on May 22. Azerbaijani media have circulated reports claiming that Ambassador Javanshir Akhundov was recalled following Iran`s decision to recall its ambassador.

``The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry is refuting this information,`` spokesman Elman Abdullayev told a news conference. ``The Azerbaijani ambassador to Iran may have come to Azerbaijan for his own purposes, or he might have stayed there [in Iran]. But Azerbaijan has neither recalled its ambassador from Iran nor issued such instructions.``

The tension rose further after two young Azerbaijani poets went missing in Iran. Azerbaijan has already sent three diplomatic notes to Tehran to enquire about the whereabouts of its citizens, but to no avail so far.

Elman Abdullayev said Iran`s failure to respond to the protest notes so far is not in line with the Vienna convention on consular relations. ``Such instances could harm relations between the two countries,`` he said.

Meanwhile, the Iranian embassy in Baku said Azerbaijan`s authorities had prevented a senior Iranian official from entering the country.

``We report with great regret that the head of the culture department of Iran`s Supreme Leadership [Farid Asri] ... was rejected from entering Azerbaijan on May 28,`` the Iranian embassy said in a statement. ``It was done in an undiplomatic way.``

It said the official was turned back at Baku international airport. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the most powerful figure in Iran, and senior officials working directly for him in his office wield great sway.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman, speaking at a news conference last Wednesday, did not refute the barring of the Iranian supreme leader`s representative, but said this was done in line with domestic laws. ``This person was turned back in accordance with the provisions enshrined in legislation,`` Abdullayev said.

Over 25 percent of Iranians are ethnic Azerbaijanis and there are strong linguistic and family ties straddling the border, adding another strain to ties between the two neighbors as each side fears the influence of the other on its population.

Iran has accused Azerbaijan of assisting Israel in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists.

Azerbaijan, for its part, has arrested dozens of people this year on suspicion of connections with Iran`s Revolutionary Guards, and of plotting attacks, including on the Israeli ambassador in Baku.

Iran `staging provocation`An Azerbaijani analyst believes it is meaningless for Azerbaijan to ``talk softly`` to Iran, because ``no matter how mild the treatment`` has been in past years, the threats posed by Iran show no signs of abating.

``The existing tension between Azerbaijan and Iran could boil into armed stand-off on their shared border, and Iran will be to blame,`` said Elkhan Shahinoglu, the head of Baku-based Atlas research center.

Shahinoglu said it is also Iran`s fault that its senior cleric was barred from Azerbaijan, otherwise, it would not have delegated an official to the country at a time of tension between the two neighboring states without consulting with Baku beforehand. By taking this move, Iran is ``drawing Azerbaijan to a provocation``, the analyst charged.

``Iran is itself staging a provocation. They know that at this time of tension, the Azerbaijani government could take adequate steps. As if they are themselves interested in the clerical leader`s representative not being let into Azerbaijan. In other words, they are themselves deliberately causing tension and trying to draw the Azerbaijani government to provocations so that it would take due action.

``Essentially, this tension is controlled from Iran. Sometimes they say that there are two to three powerhouses in Iran -- the clerical leader and his surroundings, the president and those close to him, SEPAH, etc. They might pursue different domestic policies. But the course of developments shows that with regard to Azerbaijan all these forces have joined effort,`` Shahinoglu said.