Azerbaijan's President, Ilham Aliyev, voices his country's support for the Islamic Republic's right to peaceful nuclear technology, PressTV reported.
"Azerbaijan supports Iran's peaceful nuclear activities and has announced its stance formally," he said.
I'm quite sure there's more to this than we're getting here - certainly, Iran would be happy to take Aliev's words out of context - but it's intersting nonetheless.
Aliev is certainly deviating from the American line that any nuclear activity in Iran is totally objectionable, but is he bending, or is he breaking? It seems to me that in saying peaceful nuclear capacity is acceptable, he isn't accepting Iran's posession of nuclear weapons, but is allowing himself enough wiggle room to please his neighbor to the south without earning too strong an American rebuke. Iran is one of two powerhouses that are pinching Azerbaijan, and there are far more Azeris living in "South Azerbaijan" than in Azerbaijan proper. It would be interesting to find the whole transcript, though
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