AFP: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will pay a two-day visit to neighbouring Azerbaijan next week, the Azerbaijani presidential administration said Friday. BAKU, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will pay a two-day visit to neighbouring Azerbaijan next week, the Azerbaijani presidential administration said Friday.
Ahmadinejad will meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to discuss bilateral ties and regional issues, including the status of the Caspian Sea, spokesman Adalat Abbasov said.
Abbasov would not give exact dates for the visit, but the Azeri Press Agency quoted an Iranian embassy official as saying it would begin on August 23.
Azerbaijan is a key US ally in the strategic Caucasus region but also has close diplomatic and trade ties with Iran, a fellow Shiite Muslim country.
Relations between the two countries have occasionally been strained since Azerbaijan broke from the Soviet Union in 1991, with disputes over territorial rights in the Caspian Sea and the status of Iran’s large ethnic-Azeri minority.
