Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry does not intend to comment on unconfirmed information of the Iranian media outlets regarding Azerbaijani citizens detained in this country, the ministry's spokesman Elman Abdullayev told Trend news agency on Monday.

On Sunday, Iranian media outlets reported that allegedly Azerbaijani citizen - research fellow of the Institute of Literature named after Nizami Ganjavi of the National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), scientist-orientalist Khalida Khalid, who was detained by Iranian law enforcement agencies, is accused of spying.

According to Abdullayev, Iranian side has not yet responded to Azerbaijan's note regarding the detention of Khalida Khalid and providing information on her location. Azerbaijani Embassy in Iran and Consulate General in Tebriz work in this direction on the instructions of the country's Foreign Ministry, he said.

"Fate of our citizens is always a priority for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and the government will do everything in order to ensure the rights of its citizens. We hope that Iranian Foreign Ministry will inform us regarding the detention of Khalida Khalid in the short-time period," Abdullayev said.

Azerbaijani citizens - research fellow of the Institute of Literature Khalida Khalid and her assistant Shamkhal Huseynov were detained in Iran by the country's law enforcement bodies in Tabriz last Tuesday, Iranian media outlets reported earlier.

The Consulate General sent a note on this matter to the relevant authorities in Iran, which demanded the Iranian side to clarify the details of the detention of Azerbaijani citizens and provide information on their location.

Employees of the North-Western department of the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tabriz confirmed the detention of the Azerbaijani citizens to the Consulate General.

According to the reports, Shamkhal Huseynov, who was also detained, was released last week.