Iran: Baku has yet to release two Iranian truck drivers

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh denies a report that the Republic of Azerbaijan released two Iranian truck drivers it detained in September. Khatibzadeh said the released people are not the drivers, but are two others who had been serving a jail term in the Azerbaijan Republic for other reasons.

Khatibzadeh added that they will serve the rest of their sentence inside Iran.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman however noted that Iran is pursuing the case of the two drivers and is trying to secure their release.

Earlier, Iran’s Fars News Agency quoted a western news outlet as saying the release happened a day after a phone conversation between Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and his Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.

Iran blames the tensions on the Israeli regime’s presence in Azerbaijan, saying the issue poses a threat to the Islamic Republic’s national security.

In response to the threat, Iran conducted military drills near the border with the Republic of Azerbaijan. The drills drew criticism from Baku, which denies the presence of the Israeli regime in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Iran’s trade ties with Armenia also emerged as a flashpoint after Azerbaijan began imposing a road tax on Iranian trucks that use a critical trade corridor to ship goods to the Armenian capital.

That’s the Goris-to-Kapan highway. Azerbaijan detained the two Iranian truck drivers on the highway.

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