Analysts rule out any impact of incident with Iranian drivers on Baku-Tehran relations

The detention of truckers from Iran on the Goris-Kapan highway was a demonstration of Baku's dissatisfaction with the violation of Azerbaijan's customs rules; no severe punishment of them will follow, as well as no deterioration of the two countries' interrelations, Azerbaijani analysts believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 11, an Azerbaijani police post began working on the section of the highway connecting the Armenian cities of Goris and Kapan. According to Arman Tatoyan, the Armenian Ombudsperson, Azerbaijanis stop trucks with Iranian number plates and demand payment from them. On September 15, two Iranian truckers were detained. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has stated that they had illegally crossed the border.

"I think the truckers will be formally brought to administrative responsibility and quickly released if they are still in detention. It is unlikely that Azerbaijani authorities will severely punish ordinary truck drivers," said Khalid Agaliev, a lawyer at the Institute of Media Law.

Checks of Iranian heavy trucks and even drivers' detentions will have no serious impact on the development of Baku-Tehran relations, said Mekhman Aliev, the director of the "Turan" News Agency. He has added that the situation "also harms the interests of Iranian businesses."

Iran has ignored Baku's demands to stop transportation to Karabakh, since "it seeks to maintain good relations with Armenia as well," Mr Aliev has explained, suggesting that after signing the peace treaty and recognition of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity by Armenia, the issue of Iranian transportation to Karabakh will lose its urgency.

Togrul Djuvarly, a member of the Azerbaijani National Public Committee for European Integration, believes that Iran "has always been insincere" in its relations with Azerbaijan. In his opinion, Iran "dislikes very much Azerbaijan's active military partnership" with Turkey and Pakistan, and in response Tehran "continues taking part in supplying the separatist regime" in Karabakh.