President Ilham Aliyev gave an interview to Saudi Arabia's "Al-Arabiya" TV channel.
Medianews.az reports that in the interview broadcast on August 26, the head of state also answered a question about Iran and spoke about President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The reporter asked a question about the Zangezur corridor and spoke about Iran's attitude, saying: "The President of Iran has visited Azerbaijan. His roots are connected with Azerbaijanis. He was speaking in Azerbaijani here. How do you see the relations between Azerbaijan and Iran after the current geopolitical changes?"
President Ilham Aliyev's answer was as follows: "Yes, you are right. The President of Iran has visited Azerbaijan, in fact, he has come twice. The first was an official visit, the second was when he participated in the summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization in the city of Khankendi, liberated Karabakh. We have established very good working relations with him.
Yes, you are completely right, he is Azerbaijani. He carries the same blood as me. We speak the same language. We do not need a translator. At one of the public events, he demonstrated his knowledge of Azerbaijani poetry and there was no need for any note. He is a very talented person.
Our personal relations and the relations between his administration and my administration are very constructive, very cordial. Regarding Iran's official position on new developments, we consider it very well-founded and very positive. When I say official position, I mean the position of the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. This is considered the official position.
We base our policy on politicians elected by the Iranian people who have the authority to carry out their duties, i.e., presidents. Currently, some former officials called advisers have expressed certain opinions. I do not know what advice they are giving. There was an immediate reaction."
To the question "Do you mean the advisor to the leader and others?" Ilham Aliyev replied: "Yes. This position is in no way significant for us. Its significance for us is zero because interstate relations are established between governments, presidents, ministers of foreign affairs. Therefore, we pay no attention at all to these so-called advisors' false stories. So everything is clear for us. The President's position is completely logical and based on the fact that under no circumstances is the Zangezur corridor a threat to Iran. Many rumors have been spread in some media outlets, some websites about plans for Azerbaijan to occupy Zangezur and cut the border with Iran and Armenia. This is completely false. We have no such intention. At any rate, if we wanted to do it, we would have done it. In November 2020, it would have been very easy to do this. Over the last five years, it would have been very easy to do this. It is only 40 kilometers; from a military perspective it would not have taken much time. You just go from both sides - Nakhchivan and this side of Azerbaijan, and take it.
We did not do it because we are not aggressors. We are not an occupying country; we are people and a country freeing the territories. That was our business, and our war was also just. Our war was a war for freedom. We waged the war on our own land to restore justice. So in this regard, I believe that all these talks about us planning to cut off the Armenia-Iran border are completely baseless. Everyone knows this."
Masoud Pezeshkian, born in 1954, is a South Azerbaijani Turk. He is a doctor. He has been rector of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Minister of Health, and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament. He was elected president in the 2024 nationwide election.
In Iran, the president also holds the function of head of government. The country's supreme leader (head of state) is Ali Khamenei.
