The irony of Mehdi Sobhani’s fate A new provocation by the Iranian ambassador

As everyone knows, traditions vary widely. For example, in the classic Soviet comedy The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!, the main characters traditionally visit a bathhouse on New Year’s Eve. However, the Iranian ambassador to Armenia, Mehdi Sobhani, seems to have his own unusual tradition — making provocative and inappropriate statements against Azerbaijan. Once again, he “stood out” during an interview with Armenian journalists by airing such remarks.

To the great delight of representatives of the Armenian media, Sobhani declared that “some provisions of the communiqué adopted following the recent summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization, which used fabricated wording violating the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, do not correspond to Iran’s position.” The ambassador seriously claims that this document reflects only Azerbaijan’s viewpoint and not necessarily the positions of the summit's participating countries.

Let us note the following: just recently, we witnessed Sobhani apologizing for his previously inaccurate statement. Earlier, he claimed that “Tehran has information that during the conflict between Israel and Iran, a small number of Israeli drones penetrated Iranian territory from neighboring countries, particularly from Azerbaijan.” After a sharp and rightful response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, this diplomat stated that “there is no official information on the use of Azerbaijani territory, and one should not rely solely on media reports.”

All this happened against the backdrop of Masoud Pezeshkian’s statement that the claims alleging some neighboring countries supposedly supported Israel during attacks on Iran have not been confirmed by Iranian security services. The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran did not specifically mention our country, but it is obvious that he meant Azerbaijan, once again proving the Iranian ambassador Sobhani’s tendency to utter outright falsehoods about our state. However, this Iranian diplomat, as we are convinced, is quite consistent in his preferences and this time concocted some mythical “wordings violating the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia.”

Let us start with the fact that a wording is the verbal expression of any idea — in simpler terms, words. It is quite difficult to imagine how the territorial integrity of any state could be violated through this linguistic unit. In our view, such a thing is impossible by definition.

Furthermore, at the summit in Khankendi, the leaders and high-ranking representatives of the countries participating in the Economic Cooperation Organization reaffirmed their commitment to developing regional economic integration, strengthening trade and economic ties, and promoting sustainable development in the region. How does any of this threaten the territorial integrity of Armenia? The answer is — not at all.

The forum also reached agreements on the development of international transit corridors (including the Trans-Caspian corridor), railway and road transport routes, the digitalisation of customs procedures, and the simplification of trade. Yes, Armenia found itself outside these projects, but this was a logical consequence of the choice made by that country over three decades ago, when it chose the path of aggression and occupation of Azerbaijani territories.

So what prompted the Iranian diplomat to make such, to put it mildly, inaccurate statements? Could it be that Sobhani is so upset about the fact that at the 17th ECO summit support was expressed for Azerbaijan’s efforts to revive the Karabakh region?! Or did sorrow settle in his heart because holding the summit in liberated Khankendi became a symbol of regional stability and development? It is clear that all this drives Armenian nationalists and “revanchists” into a furious rage; they continue to dream about “Stepanakert” (Khankendi — editor’s note) and bitterly regret that holding the ECO summit in the Azerbaijani city of Khankendi is a clear demonstration of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over a territory that Armenia considered “its own” for decades. But that’s exactly the point — no one except the Armenians thought so, including Iran, whose interests Sobhani is supposed to represent in Armenia, by the way.

Or maybe Ambassador Sobhani seriously got nervous over the wording in the communiqué, which explicitly states: The participants of the Summit “reaffirmed the inalienable right of these expelled Azerbaijanis for a peaceful, safe, and dignified return to their places of origin.” But tell me, who exactly is threatening Armenia’s territorial integrity? The document plainly states that this return must be carried out peacefully and in full accordance with international law.

Such behaviour from the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic looks, at the very least, strange, since it would be more logical to assume that what should cause pain in his heart is the fact that Armenian occupiers destroyed 16 out of 17 mosques in the city of Shusha. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke about this to his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian, who, by the way, upon returning to his country, told local media that the negotiations during his meetings with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Türkiye, Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, were constructive and took place in a friendly and positive atmosphere.

From all the above, there emerges a clear impression that Mehdi Sobhani has completely confused the roles of Iranian and Armenian diplomats. This ambassador strictly adheres to the tradition of making openly anti-Azerbaijani statements, the content of which inevitably leads one to think that it would be much better if he followed the custom of the heroes of Ryazanov’s comedy film and went… to the bathhouse.