Baku: Azerbaijan is ready to play a role in helping to reduce tensions between Iran and the United States, President Ilham Aliyev said, according to a statement from the Azerbaijani presidential office carried by Azerbaijan's state news agency.

According to Islamic Republic News Agency, during a meeting on Friday with a delegation from Tehran led by Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, Aliyev reiterated a position he said he had previously conveyed in a recent phone call with President Masoud Pezeshkian where he expressed Baku's concern about the sensitive security situation in the region.

Aliyev described Pezeshkian's official visit to Azerbaijan last year as successful and said bilateral relations had expanded further since then. He also pointed to the establishment of peace in the South Caucasus, calling it very important for Iran, which shares borders with both Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Nasirzadeh delivered a message from Pezeshkian to Aliyev and said he had travelled to Baku at the Iranian president's instruction. Both sides underscored the development of relations based on friendship, brotherhood and good neighborliness, and exchanged views on prospects for defense cooperation.