Mamedov was born on December 13, 1972 in Riga, Latvia, but comes from the Azerbaijani city of Lankaran. Judging by his unconcealed lobbying activities in favor of Iran, he does not identify himself with his Azerbaijani roots and is far from Latvian national interests.
Eldar Mamedov stands out today for his publicist activism, but he began his career by working in the Latvian banking sector, headed the Parex Bank office in Azerbaijan, served at the Latvian Foreign Ministry, including a stint at the Latvian embassies in Spain and the United States. After working in the diplomatic sphere, Mamedov got into the European Parliament and moved to Brussels.
A detailed study of Mamedov's activities from open sources revealed that he visited the Islamic Republic of Iran on June 22-25, 2007. If we believe Azerbaijani sources, this is when he supposedly met and formalized long-term cooperation with the Iranian side, which kept Mamedov in sight even during his diplomatic service in the Latvian Foreign Ministry. It is noteworthy that that short trip to Iran coincided with Eldar Mamedov's employment in the European Parliament. Since then, according to one of the most informed Azerbaijani publications Caliber.az, the Iranians have had another "supporter" in Brussels, whose activities are intensified or put into " hibernation " depending on the foreign policy reasonability. As the newspaper notes, this sometimes took comical turns. For example, for a long time Mamedov positioned himself as an ardent liberal and, accordingly, an opponent of the Iranian government. However, in the meantime, he was repeatedly spotted at the Iranian Embassy in Belgium - in particular in 2010 and 2012 - at the height of the U.S. - Iranian crisis.
Further, the publication writes that in 2018, the Iranian diplomatic mission in Brussels approached Mamedov to organize a lobbying effort to support the "nuclear deal" that Donald Trump tore up and to organize active lobbying of the IRI in the European Parliament. "It is no secret in European diplomatic circles that today Mamedov has become the chief "coach" for Iranian diplomats in Belgium and personally prepares theses and narratives for their communication with European politicians. Mamedov also mediates contacts between Iran and European think tanks, such as the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS). He does not neglect his work with political foundations. Several years ago, for example, Mamedov organized private discussions with Iranian and European representatives at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Brussels. And in the leading European media he sneaks targeted talking points (often under the nominal authorship of his acquaintances) to influence public opinion, experts and politicians to renegotiate the "nuclear deal" on terms favorable to Iran," concludes the source.
