Lawmaker criticise anti-Iran separatist convention in Baku

Member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mansour Haqiqatpour strongly condemned an anti-Iran convention by a separatist group called South Azerbaijan National Liberation Movement in the Azeri capital of Baku in late March.Last month, the so-called Convention of the South Azerbaijan National Liberation Movement was held in Baku and some of the participants expressed hostile remarks against the Islamic Republic of Iran.Haqiqatpour pointed to his several correspondences with Azeri lawmakers asking them for clarifications on the anti-Iran convention, and said, "The Azeri legislators have not provided any clear response to the nine letters I have already sent to them."The Iranian Embassy in Azerbaijan, in a statement issued last week, strongly condemned the anti-Iran convention by the so-called South Azerbaijan National Liberation Movement in Baku."Despite Tehran's policy of bolstering friendly ties with Baku, respecting Azerbaijan's sovereignty, and not interfering in the domestic affairs of the country, certain anti-Iran elements have regrettably carried out aggressive and offensive actions in Azerbaijan and have made unfounded territorial allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran," the statement read.The Islamic Republic of Iran's embassy believes that the grouplets affiliated to the world Zionism are seeking to provoke the sentiments of different ethnic groups to create instability and insecurity in favor of the aliens, and are trying to destroy the unity and solidarity among different ethnic groups in the Republic of Azerbaijan in this way, it added.Last week, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Tehran Javanshir Akhundov to protest at Baku for allowing the anti-Iran convention in the Central Asian country.During a meeting with Akhundov here in Tehran, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Oceania Seyed Abbas Araqchi voiced the Islamic Republic's strong objection to the Azeri government's failure in preventing the event.