ArmInfo.Azerbaijan rejects allegations of deliberate blocking of the Astara crossing for Iranian trucks.
So, yesterday the Iranian IRNA agency published an interview with a member of the Iranian-Russian Chamber of Commerce Seyid Jalilafari, who said that the Azerbaijani customs was blocking Iranian trucks in Astara. According to him, the Azerbaijani side deliberately cuts off the electricity, they refer to the inoperative X-ray or the absence of dogs checking drugs and detain Iranian trucks heading to Russia. For this reason, a queue of 10 km long trucks lined up at the border. He also noted that the trucks carry perishable vegetables and fruits, so the cargo is spoiled.
Jalilafari noted that the problem arose after the Iranians began to conduct military exercises on the border with Azerbaijan, ruining relations with it.
Turan reports that, in turn, the Customs Committee of Azerbaijan denied allegations of blocking Iranian trucks. In its message dated October 19, this department reported that the delay was due to the fact that the computer system on the Iranian side turned off for 10 hours on October 15-16. In addition, trucks waste a lot of time in the process of loading goods at vegetable bases on the Iranian side, which also has nothing to do with Azerbaijan. Therefore, all delays are related to problems on the Iranian side, the report said.
It should be noted that the stumbling block between Baku and Tehran was the action of the Azerbaijani security forces against Iranian trucks on the Goris-Kapan road of the Syunik region of Armenia, 21 km of which were under the control of the Azerbaijani side. The Azerbaijani side is demanding $ 200-400 from Iranian drivers for travel through this section as a customs fee. Moreover, two Iranian drivers were detained for allegedly delivering cargo to Nagorno-Karabakh. After that, Iran held military exercises on the border with Azerbaijan. This move by Tehran has increased the degree of tension between the two countries.