BAKU — Iran’s interior minister briefed Azerbaijan’s president on “ongoing negotiations aimed at easing regional tensions” on Monday, according to the Azerbaijani presidency’s account of the meeting, but neither government has said who is negotiating with whom or what has been agreed.
President Ilham Aliyev received Eskandar Momeni on October 12 and said he hoped the current tensions in the Middle East would be resolved through negotiations. Momeni conveyed greetings from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who he said fondly recalled his recent meetings with Aliyev. Aliyev, in turn, noted that he had met Pezeshkian several times recently, including in Turkmenistan a few days earlier.
The readout gives no sign that Azerbaijan is mediating. Aliyev spoke of hope, not of a role, and Momeni’s briefing is described as a briefing, not a request. What the account does show is Baku positioning itself as a host that hears Iran’s version of events at the highest level.
Security came first on Aliyev’s list. He stressed the importance of high-level cooperation in security and the protection of public order, and the sides discussed prospects for cooperation between the relevant institutions, according to the presidency’s readout. No agreement, date or project is named, and the readout does not say what the delegation’s visit was meant to produce. It is the latest entry in the record of Azerbaijan-Iran relations that the two presidents have kept busy.
Momeni also thanked Azerbaijan for humanitarian aid and support during emergencies, including what he called devastating earthquakes and forest fires. The readout does not say when the help was sent or how much.
The negotiations he mentioned remain unnamed in public. Moscow’s own position on Iran’s enriched uranium is conditional, as TEH reported in its coverage of the Russia Iran enriched uranium offer, and no deal has been announced.
Which negotiations Momeni meant, and whether Baku has any part in them, is the one question the readout leaves open.
