Aliyev rejects Iranian claims about Israeli presence on Azerbaijani territories

President Ilham Aliyev has rejected Iranian claims regarding an Israeli presence in Azerbaijan’s newly liberated territories adjacent to the border with Tehran, in an interview cited by Trend News Agency.

“First, we reject all the accusations about Azerbaijan bringing Israel to liberated territories [in Karabakh]. That is absolute nonsense. It is just a pretext aimed at the domestic audience in order to demonize Azerbaijan,” the president said during an interview with Italian newspaper la Repubblica on Oct. 7.

“Everybody can go and see that there is no life there. Everything is destroyed. Second, that we demand respect, the same respect that we show others,” he added.