The State Border Service of Azerbaijan (SBS) has responded to statements by the Commander of the Iranian Border Troops, Major General Ali Gudarzi.

The SBS Press Centre said:

"In a recent interview published in the media of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Major General Ali Gudarzi, Commander of the Border Troops of the Islamic Republic of Iran, made untrue statements. The State Border Service officially states that no third state forces have ever crossed the state border… not now and [never will]…

Allegations about the activities of foreign takfiris in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as the use of Azerbaijani territory by third countries for intelligence purposes against Iran, are false and do not reflect the truth.

There are no foreign forces and specialists on the state borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan, border guards, and the State Border Service, which has the most modern capabilities for reliable protection and protection of the state borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan, does not need the support of foreign forces.

The application of border and customs control on the part of the Gorus-Gafan road passing through the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the state border with Armenia is a sovereign right of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Despite regular working meetings and the exchange of information between the Azerbaijani and Iranian border guards at various levels, the Azerbaijani side has so far not received any information or any facts about what was said in the interview.

At present, the operational conditions on the state border with the Islamic Republic of Iran are stable and Azerbaijan is under the full control of border guards. Any provocation against the state interests of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the state border will continue to be resolutely prevented.

In light of the above, we urge Iranian officials to be more responsible and to refrain from disseminating false or defamatory information."

Moreover, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also made statement on recent issue:

"Unfortunately, the Iranian Foreign Ministry does not give up the smear campaign against Azerbaijan. We categorically reject such accusations. We stated during the 44-day war, and now we emphasise once again that there were no terrorists in Azerbaijan. In general, as a country suffering from terrorism, there has never been a place for terrorists in the territory of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan liberated its lands from occupation at the expense of the blood and lives of its martyrs. As President Ilham Aliyev noted, Azerbaijan, which has more than 100,000 armies, does not need mercenaries.

Surprisingly, no such accusations were made by Iran during the war, and there was no cause for concern until a new government came to power after the war.

The anti-Azerbaijani campaign will not benefit Iran. It is known that the reasons for these baseless accusations are the prevention of illegal entry of Iranian trucks into the territory of Azerbaijan and the liberation of Azerbaijani lands from occupation.

Our advice to those who want to look for terrorists is to take a good look around them. We remind that in October last year, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry provided information on the participation of Armenian mercenaries in the fighting in the then occupied territories of the country to the diplomatic corps, including the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran," FM Spokeswoman Abdullayeva said.

In addition, Azerbaijani Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Rashad Nabiyev has met Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Issa Zarepur in Istanbul on the side lines of a session of the Transport and Communications Council. They discussed the development of bilateral relations, the report said, without providing further details.

Earlier, Turkey closed its checkpoints on the Iran border. Later reports said that it was Iran who closed a checkpoint on its border with Turkey's Van province.