Iran's navy commander cautions Azerbaijan against outcomes of missile purchase

Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari called the Caspian Sea as the Sea of peace and friendship, and said the recent Azeri missile procurements from Israel have harmful impacts on regional peace and stability. "We have announced many times that the Caspian Sea is the Sea of peace and friendship and the littoral states should provide its security through cooperation with each other but certain sides adopt such measures (purchasing Israeli missiles) through coordination with others," Sayyari said in a press conference in Tehran on Sunday, commenting on Azerbaijan's recent purchase of Israeli Gabriel-5 missiles. "Anyhow, Iran is not heedless of the issue and is monitoring the situation," he added. Sayyari called on the regional states to maintain security in the region through coordination and cooperation with each other. The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The Caspian Sea littoral states consist of Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. They have been debating their share in the Caspian Sea legal regime since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It is noteworthy that Iranian and Azeri officials have always underlined that Tehran and Baku are against foreign interference in the region to ensure the security of the Caspian Sea. "The security of the Caucasus region and the Caspian Sea should be provided by countries situated in the region," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili said in a meeting with visiting Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov here in Tehran late 2009. The Azeri minister, for his part, stressed the importance of peace and stability for all regional states, explaining that allowing foreign countries to take regional security matters into their hands is not acceptable. "In providing security in the region, interference of no foreign force is accepted," Mammadyarov said. The Azeri official went on to describe Iran's role in ensuring regional security as "considerably significant," calling on the Tehran government to help resolve ongoing conflicts in the Caucasus.