Official Baku was not very enthusiastic about Iran’s decision to abolish visa requirement for Azerbaijani citizens. Specifically, Baku was cautious of Iran’s hints about the advisability of mutual abolition of visa requirements.

Trying to be close to European agencies, Azerbaijan is also cautious about being a friend of Iran, the powerful West’s “adversary,” writes the Baku-based Zerkalo (Mirror) newspaper. The source reminds the readers that Teheran “showered” Azerbaijan with “attractive offers” immediately after the Azerbaijani-Turkish relations worsened on the threshold of the signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols and their submission to the Turkish Parliament for ratification.

“Iranian diplomats have seized the opportunity for forming closer political ties with Azerbaijan, a country Iran has not so far had very warm relations with. Azerbaijan has not been making any steps either, and a great many reasons for that can be cited,” the newspaper writes. Among them is, according to the source, Iran’s assistance to Armenia, with Azerbaijan viewing it as “the cause of all its troubles.”

Baku remains as cautious now as it was before, the newspaper writes. Otherwise, Baku could have easily “reciprocated Tehran’s feelings.”

It is noteworthy that, after the Iranian Embassy in Azerbaijan made an official statement on the abolition of visa requirements, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded through its official representative Elham Polukhov. He pointed out that the visa regime with Iran was “considerably simplified”, and if Teheran officially proposed that Baku consider the possibility of abolishing the visa requirements, “we will consider the proposal and make a decision in our national interests.”

Political analysts and other experts seem to have conflicting opinions on the matter. The opponents point out financial, economic and human factors among the possible negative consequences. “We have had suffered enough from Iranians coming to Azerbaijan. Drug smuggling, Iranian mullahs – all this has negative effects on our country. Imagine what will happen if the borders become transparent, following the house-to-house principle! Great threat is what it means,” the political scientist Rustam Mamediov told the newspaper. According to him, Iran has “excessive population, and is obviously trying to get rid of it by sending them to Azerbaijan,” which can affect the state budget.

In his turn, the expert Zardusht Alizade does not see any threat. “What threat do the mullahs’ pose? U.S. $50 (a visa price) is not such a large sum for Iranian mullahs. The visa requirements are not an obstacle for them. They would have come here long ago if they had wished to,” he said.

The expert tried to dispel the fears about “the West’s jealousy.” “First, Azerbaijan is far from being a western country. Secondly, as a matter of fact, the West does not give a damn about our relations with neighbors,” Alizade said.

The author of the article points out elements of bilateral cooperation in the economic and energy sectors. Specifically, Azerbaijan plans to supply gas to Iran from next year – a relevant memorandum has just been signed.

“One would ask: why on earth is Iran going to import Azerbaijani gas when it can boast of its own reserves, which are much larger than Azerbaijan’s? Iran must have decided to employ Russia-developed political device – importing Azerbaijani gas despite its own huge resources. Surprisingly, a similar amount – 500m cubic meters annually,” the author concludes.