TEHRAN – Azerbaijan’s deputy prime minister is expected to arrive in the Iranian capital on Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Speaking at a weekly press conference on Monday morning, Saeed Khatibzadeh, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, announced that the Azerbaijani deputy prime minister is expected to pay a visit to Iran this week.

“Deputy prime minister of Azerbaijan will travel to Tehran on Wednesday,” Khatibzadeh said, without elaborating.

The deputy prime minister’s visit comes nearly two weeks after Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov paid a visit to Iran during which he met with several high-ranking Iranian officials such as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani, President Hassan Rouhani and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that during Bayramov’s meeting with Rouhani “it was noted that the liberation of Azerbaijani territories and the restoration of the border opened new opportunities for further cooperation projects between our countries. The border between Azerbaijan and Iran was named the border of friendship and economic development.”

Iran and Azerbaijan had close contacts during the 44-day war between Baku and Yerevan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The war resulted in Azerbaijan retaking the territories it lost to Armenia in the 1990s.

During his visit to Iran, Bayramov briefed the Iranian officials on the war, while underlining the need to further deepen the Iran-Azerbaijan ties.

“Minister Jeyhun Bayramov briefed the other party on the 44-day Patriotic War, which resulted in the liberation of Azerbaijani lands,” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement following Bayramov’s meeting with Zarif.

The chief Iranian diplomat “welcomed the liberation of the occupied territories,” according to the statement.

Iran had called for a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and it even presented a peace initiative in this regard.

SM/PA