Baku-Tehran friendship: diplomatic vows and back-stabbing

March 14, 2012 - 20:52 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry has detained 22 Azeri citizens accused of spying for Iran.

According to the report, they had been secretly cooperating with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), “collecting and passing information that could harm Azerbaijan’s security,” and recruiting people for Iranian intelligence services. They were charged with high treason and illegal acquisition and storage of firearms and ammunition.

Only recently, Baku and Tehran exchanged vows of inseverable friendship. As Baku firmly stated, “nothing can hinder cooperation between the two countries.” Nothing, but the countries in question, one might add.

On one hand, Baku is pledging loyalty to Tehran, assuring that Azeri territory will never become a springboard for Iran-aimed attacks. On the other hand, it’s playing into the hands of Tehran’s rivals through orchestrating mass arrests of “Iranian spies.”

Ties between Tehran and Baku have deteriorated of late. In January, Azerbaijan said it had thwarted a terrorist plot against Israel’s envoy in Baku by two people allegedly linked to Iran’s intelligence services.

Tehran, in turn, accused Baku of providing support to perpetrators of Israeli murders in Iran.

Azerbaijan announced on February 22 it had uncovered a terrorist group with links to Iran’s IRGC and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The group, led by an IRGC officer called Hamid and Hezbollah operative Hadji Abbas, was planning to stage attacks against the Israeli embassy and a Jewish cultural center in the Azeri capital Baku.

One might take a guess at the actual meaning behind the “non-nonsense” Baku-Tehran ties. Could it be the naivete of Iran, putting sincere trust into insincere Azeri friendship? Hardly so. Or could it be the necessity of a diplomatic fencing with a neighbor state, while expecting a back stab at any point?