Author: VK
Almost a month has passed since the unusual arrest for "unusual activity" in Iran of two citizens – scientist Khalida Khalid and her driver Shamhal Huseynov. As VK has already reported, after the first-ever visit of Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan to Israel in the traditionally challenging Iranian-Azerbaijani relations there has been a new round of tensions, which affected, in all likelihood, Azerbaijani citizens who were arrested in Iran. Was Elmar Mammadyarov's visit to Israel one of the topics of discussion during the recent visit of head of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev to Iran, and if so, what did the parties agree to do? We do not know this. However, the fact that the arrest of Khalida Khalid and Shamhal Huseynov took place directly during Mehdiev’s visit to Tehran hardly has promoted strengthening of trust between Azerbaijan and Iran as part of that particular visit.
To lower the tension and gain the release its citizens, Baku released the "heavy artillery" by sending to Tehran on May 18 the extended delegation headed by the head of the Caucasus Muslims Department Allakhshukur Pashazade. Note that Pashazade, professing Shia Islam, traditionally acts as a liaison between Azerbaijan and Iran's Shiite clergy who are policymakers in Iran. The delegation includes MPs Fattah Heydarov, Mubariz Gurbanly, Eldar Ibragimov, Shemseddin Hajiyev, Javanshir Pashazade, Vice Chairman of Caucasian Muslims Department Haji Sabir Gasanly, spokesman for the head of Iran's Islamic revolution in Azerbaijan Ojag Nejad, president of ANS Group of Companies Vahid Mustafayev and CMD representative Zulfugar Farzaliev.
The initial reports coming out of Tehran were quite encouraging. The delegation led by Pashazade was received in Iran at the highest level. Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the meeting with guests of Baku regularly talked to them in the Azerbaijani language, which he speaks perfect being an ethnic Azeri. During the meeting, Pashazade thanked Iran for helping to Azerbaijan in the Karabakh war. This is a clear nod toward Iran since the question of the role of Iran in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Azerbaijan remains highly controversial. Next, Pashazade invited the Iranian spiritual leader to visit Azerbaijan, and the latter agreed with pleasure.
The Azerbaijani delegation was also received by the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. During the meeting, the Iranian president made an important political statement about the actual support of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the fall elections. The President of Iran, expressing confidence that Azerbaijan will reach even greater success under the leadership of Aliyev, said: "Be assured that Azerbaijan and Iran will always support each other. Feature that distinguishes the Azerbaijani-Iranian relations from the relations with other countries is religious brotherhood and love. I am sure that the wisdom of President Ilham Aliyev will further develop the relations between our countries. "
However, Iran is well aware that a real alternative to the incumbent president in the elections in Azerbaijan is not expected, and the rest of the spectrum of political forces in the country also does not feel special sympathies toward Tehran. The only exception here is Shiite Islamists, who however, have no representation in the political arena of the country - with the exception of the illegal activities of the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan, which enjoys a degree of support of the traditionally conservative villages.
It is noteworthy that recently Azerbaijani Islamists threw "touchstone" at the political arena by organizing a campaign to collect signatures in support of the nomination for the presidency of the head of illegally functioning Islamic Party of Azerbaijan Movsum Samedov. According to the Azerbaijani news websitefaktxeber.com, in support Samedov serving a 12-year prison sentence 52 thousand people gave their signatures, which is a tiny fraction of the nearly four million citizens with the right to vote. Given this, Tehran has no illusions about the prospects for the power in Azerbaijan and its supporters, and it builds cooperation with the current government hard standing on its feet.
The constructive nature of the meetings held by the Azerbaijani delegation with the Iranian leadership has given hope for a speedy release of the citizens of Azerbaijan. Thus, the Azerbaijani ANS TV channel, which head was included in a delegation to Tehran, was quick to announce that the Azerbaijani delegation will return to Baku together with the Azerbaijani citizens arrested in Iran. Presumably, a preliminary agreement with the Iranian side has actually occurred. On May 19, Ambassador of Iran in Azerbaijan told local reporters that Khalida Khalid and Shamhal Huseynov were released. The same information was confirmed by Foreign Ministry spokesman of Iran Abbas Araghchi: "Recently, our security forces have detained and questioned two citizens of Azerbaijan. We have provided information on the allegations of citizens to the Azerbaijani government, and after questioning, as a sign of good will, they were released". As for the arrested Iranian citizen Mir Kazemi, who was in Azerbaijan as part of the Iranian delegation, here there is a misunderstanding, he said. "I hope that this misunderstanding will soon be eliminated. We are currently working on this issue through diplomatic channels”, Araghchi said.
However, the Azerbaijani scientist and her driver, contrary to all expectations, did not return to Baku with Pashazade’s delegation. The Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Tabriz lacks information about the location of the Azerbaijani citizens. We cannot rule out the possibility that Iran deliberately delayed the release of Khalida Khalid and Shamhal Huseynov, expecting Azerbaijan to release a citizen of Iran Mir Kazemi who was recently arrested and whom spokesman of Iranian Foreign Ministry was talking about, or to make concessions in other matters. But perhaps such a policy in which a "hostage" of the political confusion of the two countries is ordinary citizens is not acceptable to the two countries, between which, in the words of the Iranian president, share a common "religious brotherhood and love."
