Azerbaijani Defense Ministry issued a statement on the reports released by WikiLeaks about the meeting of Defense Minister Safar Abiyev and former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse.

The statement sent to APA by spokesman for the ministry, Lieutenant-Colonel Eldar Sabiroglu says:

“The text surprised me. Being spokesman I attend Defense Minister’s most meetings, especially with the ambassadors. I remember very well his meetings with the former U.S. ambassador Anne Derse. I did not witness such talks. The text seems to be fictitious and creates an impression of a provocation aiming to damage the relations between the countries,” he said.

The US embassy cable published by WikiLeaks says that Defence Minister Safar Abiyev told the US ambassador about a trip to Moscow to discuss Azerbaijan’s allegations of Russian weapons transfers to Armenia. While Russian Defence Minster Serdyukov denied the weapons transfers in formal meetings, “after the second bottle of vodka” that evening the Russians opened up and admitted to having transferred weapons to Armenia, Abiyev is reported to have told the US ambassador.