AZERBAIJAN ON US EFFORTS TO ENSURE IRANIAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAKU 000283 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR ISN, IO, AND NEA E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/06/2017 TAGS: KNNP PREL IR AJ SUBJECT: AZERBAIJAN ON US EFFORTS TO ENSURE IRANIAN COMPLIANCE WITH UNSCR 1737 REF: STATE 23001 Classified By: Ambassador Anne E. Derse for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Embassy Iran Watcher delivered reftel points on Iran's failure to comply with UNSCR 1737 to MFA America's Desk Officer Elchin Bashirov on March 6. Bashirov thanked us for seeking GOAJ support on this issue and said that the GOAJ will, on a bilateral level, remind Iran of it's international obligations. Bashirov reaffirmed the GOAJ's desire that its southern neighbor not acquire nuclear weapons and for a peaceful resolution of the issue. ¶2. (C) Addressing the broader question of Azerbaijan's bilateral relationship with Iran, Bashirov noted that the GOAJ has an "agreement" with Iran "not to vote against each other at the UN." (Comment: This is the first we have heard of a specific agreement between Azerbaijan and Iran regarding UN votes. However, Azerbaijan routinely trades its votes on a range of UN issues in exchange for support for its position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It would not surprise us if Azerbaijan had a similar, standing arrangement with Iran. We will explore this issue further.) DERSE