Expert: Funeral of assassinated Khamenei became Iran`s diplomatic  inventory of its contacts

ArmInfo.  The funeral of Iran's assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei became a central event not  only for the Middle East but also for the broader international  agenda, and was effectively a diplomatic inventory of Iran's  contacts.

Sergey Melkonyan, PhD in history and research fellow at APRI Armenia,  shares a similar opinion.

The expert noted that there are few leaders in the world today of  such stature, whose funerals can last almost a week and attract  millions of people. Melkonyan also noted that, as a rule, such events  always have not only a domestic but also an international context.

"The level of participation of foreign delegations, especially from  neighboring states, is indicative. While Turkey also had a reduced  status (as Deputy Prime Minister), Azerbaijan lowered the bar even  further by sending the Speaker of Parliament. It's likely that after  the incident in Nakhichevan, Aliyev couldn't afford to personally  participate in the funeral procession," the expert believes.

Melkonyan added that the Israeli government's recent decision on  recognizing the Armenian Genocide and Baku's subsequent  dissatisfaction theoretically gave Azerbaijan a diplomatic  opportunity to demonstrate its distance from Israel and personally  express solidarity with Iran. "However, this did not happen. This  demonstrates not only Azerbaijan's continued deep mistrust of Iran,  but also Baku's unwillingness to reconsider its close and deep ties  with Israel," he asserted.