PAGE 2

ANAYURDUM

Azerbaijan Society of America expresses grave concern about the recent activities of a rogue state of Iran against independent Azerbaijan.
On July 23, an Iranian military plane and warship forced two Azerbaijani vessels to withdraw from a major offshore oilfield being developed by a Western consortium. The vessels, contracted by consortium operator British Petroleum (BP), were carrying out survey at the Alov-Araz-Sharg field, situated within Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea.
After this incident, on July 29th, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the powerful policy-making Expediency Council and the former head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, has claimed in an interview: "Azerbaijan
was a part of Iran about 150 years ago. Azerbaijani leaders should govern the country in such a way that Iranians would not demand the return of Azerbaijan to the Motherland." (Assocated Press, RFE/RL) Moreover, Rezaei has called the Iranian government to "continue political and military threats"(!)
against Azerbaijan.
Finally, on July 30th Iranian reconnaissance plane has violated Azerbaijani airspace and flew for 4 hours over the Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea getting as far as 150 km close to capital Baku.
Azerbaijan Society of America calls for immediate attention of U.S. President, State Department, and Congress to the issue of Iranian activity in Caspian region and against Azerbaijan in particular. The Republic of Azerbaijan restored its independence in 1991 after the break up of Soviet Union and is a UN member since March 1992. Over the past 10 years, Azerbaijan has established friendly ties with neighboring Iran, while developing the oilfields in Azeri sector of Caspian with the consortia of U.S. and European oil companies.
The unexpected actions and statements by Iranian government as well as its military intervention threats are in direct violation of the international law. ASA fully endorses the enforcement of sanctions against Iran, recently extended by the U.S. Senate, and calls for action to be taken on behalf of U.S. and world governments to force the state of Iran by all available means to respect the territorial integrity and independence of its neighbors.