Novruz Mammadov refuses to go into detail about the content of the leaked cables

PanARMENIAN.Net - A senior Azerbaijani official has questioned the Wikileaks website's publication of confidential US embassy cables on the eve of a major OSCE summit.

Novruz Mammadov, head of the Presidential Administration's international relations department, said it looked as though someone was out to cause damage.

“It seems there are forces who intend to damage relations between various states and they are already trying to do this. This is a dangerous trend,” Mammadov stated.

The cables published by Wikileaks included several from the US embassy in Baku. Most concerned the activities of Iranians in Azerbaijan, while one cable was an account of US Under Secretary of State William Burns’ meeting with President Ilham Aliyev in February this year.

The cables included alleged remarks made by Ilham Aliyev about Iran, Turkey and Russia during the meeting. US Charge d'Affaires Donald Lu said in the leaked cable that “Aliyev made clear his distaste for the Erdogan government in Turkey” and said that Azerbaijan had sold gas to Russia to prevent Turkey becoming a gas distribution hub.

Mammadov declined to go into detail about the content of the leaked cables: “For the time being, I don't want to say anything about their contents. However, I was surprised at some views in those data being attributed to the president of Azerbaijan at his meetings.”

“The real status of our relations with our neighbours is known to everyone today. The steps we make with neighbouring states on bilateral co-operation are at the forefront,” Mammadov said.

“There is no need to prove it. The work done with fraternal Turkey alone in recent years is amongst the most important and large scale of the past decade at the global level on which the services rendered by President Ilham Aliyev are exceptional. Maybe they changed the attribution of remarks made at the level of the foreign minister and other ministries to exaggerate its importance,” News.Az cited Mammadov as saying.