Iran cleric says Karabakh "inseparable" part of Muslim world

An Iranian senior cleric has said that Nagorno-Karabakh is an "inseparable" part of Muslim world, East Azarbayjan provincial TV (Sahand TV) said on 23 May.


"Nagorno-Karabakh is a part of Azerbaijan and a body of Islam," Ayatollah Mojtahed-Shabestari, representative of the Supreme Leader in the province, was shown as saying in Azeri at a meeting with a group of members of religious and cultural NGOs from the Azerbaijani Republic.


The report added that Ayatollah Mojtahed-Shabestari, who also is the Friday imam of Tabriz, highlighted the importance of "protecting Muslim world geography" as well as promoting "pure" Islamic values.


The TV channel later said that the chairman of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Religious Organizations, Mubariz Qurbanli, "appreciated Iran for supporting Azerbaijan over the Karabakh conflict", adding that people of Azerbaijan would never forget the aid provided by Iran and Iranian officials in this regard. He also mentioned that Wahhabism and spreading false interpretation of Islam harm all Muslim countries. Mubariz Qurbanli went on to say that benefiting the experience and religious potential of Iran in this regard would be helpful for Muslim countries in the region, the TV channel reported.


BBCM note: Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which, along with seven territories, came under the control of ethnic Armenians in the early 1990s. The ceasefire agreement, reached in 1994, is often said violated by both sides. The latest escalation in early April left dozens of soldiers killed from both sides.



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