TEHRAN -
The roots of the rivalry between Tehran and Baku go back to the 19th century.
Where the Soviet Union cut off Azerbaijan from Persia, and despite the independence of Azerbaijan after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the relations of the two countries have fluctuated during the past decades between calm and escalation against the background of the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region on the one hand and the Azerbaijani-Israeli rapprochement on the other.
After rounds of escalating tension and separatist groups within both countries playing on the chord of Azeri nationalism, the armed attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran last January set fire to the complex relations between the two countries, but what was published by the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" on Sunday In the past, the growing relations between Baku and Tel Aviv at the expense of Tehran angered the Iranians.
Officially, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, commented on the Haaretz newspaper report by saying that Tehran's position on the "Zionist entity" is clear, and that his country's relations with the countries of the region come within this framework, adding that the Islamic Republic explained its position to neighboring countries on the destabilizing role of Tel Aviv. For security and stability, and "we hope that these countries will pay attention to regional interests and bilateral relations with Iran."
As for the Iranian press, it showed great interest in the subject.
Some of them were titled "Baku is playing with fire," while others accused Baku of adopting an anti-Tehran policy, while some experts and researchers highlighted Tel Aviv's policy, which mimics the Iranian policy of establishing a foothold on the enemy's borders.
This remarkable escalation in positions raises several questions about the nature of the Iranian-Azerbaijani historical relations and their prospects during the coming period, the real causes of the current crisis, and what does Tehran fear as a result of the Azerbaijani-Israeli rapprochement?
Beheshti Pour says that the Israeli enemy is exploiting Azerbaijani lands to carry out sabotage operations inside Iran (Iranian press)
What bothered Iran in the Israeli Haaretz report?
Haaretz newspaper revealed, last Sunday, that an investigative investigation revealed that Israel had sold billions of dollars’ worth of war equipment to Azerbaijan in exchange for oil and a foothold in Iran’s side, adding that the last seven years witnessed the landing of 92 flights of cargo planes belonging to the Azerbaijani “Silkoy” company at the airport. Ovda military camp in southern Israel, in order to transport shipments of weapons and ammunition from Israel to Azerbaijan, where the two countries have been linked by a strategic alliance for 20 years.
And the newspaper reported that last Thursday, an Ilyushin-76 plane landed at Ovda Airport before taking off to its base in Baku. A high ability to track and monitor what is happening in Iran, and the Azeri authorities have worked to rehabilitate an airport designated to help Israel in case it decides to attack Iranian nuclear facilities," and revealed that "Mossad agents who stole the Iranian nuclear archive smuggled it to Israel via Azerbaijan."
Why does Tehran worry about the alliance of Azerbaijan and Israel?
The researcher in state relations, Hassan Beheshti Pour, answers this question by saying, "Providing a foothold for the enemy in the side of Iran sits on the ladder of Tehran's concerns," as he considered the Azerbaijani-Israeli rapprochement harmful to Iranian interests in the Caucasus and that it comes in accordance with a "Zionist-American" agenda hostile to his country.
In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, he saw that despite the differences between Baku and Yerevan (the Armenian capital), the Israeli weapons in Azerbaijan are directed towards Iranian interests, adding that the Israeli enemy took advantage of the Azerbaijani lands more than once to carry out sabotage operations inside Iran.
BeheshtiPour revealed that the investigations conducted by his country with the suspects in the armed attack on the shrine of "Shah Chrag" in the city of Shiraz, last October, proved that the "terrorists" originated from Azerbaijan, and that the investigations into the file of the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists had reached to similar results.
Pak Ain: Some external parties pose a threat by aggravating relations between Tehran and Baku (Al Jazeera Net)
What about attacking the Baku embassy in Tehran?
Despite the difference in Iranian circles regarding how to deal with Baku and its ambitions in the Caucasus region in general and in the recent crisis in particular, they agree to describe the Azerbaijani response after the armed attack on the Baku embassy in Tehran as hasty and not commensurate with the scale of the incident, especially since Tehran announced its full readiness To jointly investigate its circumstances and punish potential offenders.
Iranian circles also accused the Azerbaijani side of politicizing the incident and opening the door wide for its exploitation by foreign parties, noting that the evacuation of the Baku embassy in Tehran came very shortly after the opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in the "Zionist entity".
For his part, Mohsen Bak Ain, the former Iranian ambassador to Baku, refers to the growing rapprochement between Baku and Tel Aviv on the one hand, and the historical hostility between the Islamic Republic and Israel on the other, and blames external parties working to drive a wedge in the brotherly relations between the Iranian and Azerbaijani peoples.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Bak Ain says that the quick responses by some external parties show that a number of countries were waiting for such an incident, and that they are striving to ride the wave of emergency crisis between Tehran and Baku and question the relations between them.
What are the reasons for the continued tension between the two countries?
Political researcher Mahdi Khorsand considers the recent crisis in his country's relations with Azerbaijan to be a pretext for the historical dispute to float to the surface, pointing out that the political dispute between Tehran and Baku over the geography of the Caucasus region and the Iranian position rejecting any change in the borders of the region is a major cause of tension in relations between them during the past years. .
In an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Khorsand enumerated some differences between Tehran and Baku, including Tehran's opposition to any change in the political borders in the Caucasus and its position on the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, in addition to the fact that the accelerating rapprochement between Azerbaijan and Israel is a threat to Iranian national security.
He added that among the differences was Iran's failure of plans to extend the Turani corridor on its northwestern borders and the support of the Armenian side in its refusal to control Baku over the "Zangzour" corridor that connects the Nakhchivan region of the Republic of Azerbaijan, concluding that the Iranian-Azerbaijani relations will witness tension during the coming period, but they will return to normal. Even after a while, as he put it.
Khorsand believes that the political dispute over the geography of the Caucasus region is a major cause of tension in relations between Tehran and Baku (Al-Jazeera Net)
What is the future of relations between the two countries?
Political researcher Mahdi Azizi believes that the steps taken by Baku do not bode well for containing the crisis in the short term, warning - in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net - that Baku would present under the pretext of what it considers an "Iranian threat" to sign an agreement with a third party to protect it that might lead to the stability of foreign forces. near the Iranian border.
He explained that the tension of Iranian-Azerbaijani relations will negatively affect the activity of the International Transport Corridor between North and South (INSTC), in addition to obstructing Iranian exports to Russia and Eastern Europe, noting that Tehran and Yerevan relations will flourish following the tension of Iranian-Azerbaijan relations, expecting to strengthen the activity of Iranian separatist groups within Azerbaijan.