Azatutyun.am. Armenia and Azerbaijan should rely on Iran, Russia and Turkey, rather than “outside forces,” in trying to negotiate a peace deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said during a visit to Yerevan on Wednesday.
The peace process appeared to be a key focus of his talks with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan. Amir-Abdollahian discussed the issue with his Azerbaijani and Russian counterparts in separate phone calls on Tuesday.
Amir-Abdollahian said that he discussed with the Armenian leaders Iran’s possible role in Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran wants to see peace and stability [in the South Caucasus] ensured without the interference of outside forces and believes it can be achieved only with the help of regional guarantors,” he told a joint news conference with Mirzoyan held after the talks.
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He said that the so-called “Consultative Regional Platform 3+3” involving Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Turkey is the most suitable format of doing that.
The foreign ministers of the five states held their first multilateral meeting in Tehran in October. Georgia has refused to join the platform launched in December 2021 in Moscow, citing continuing Russian occupation of its breakaway regions.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told Pashinian last week that “extra-regional countries” must not be allowed to intervene in unresolved disputes in the South Caucasus. Raisi thus reaffirmed Iran’s strong opposition to Western presence in the region, which is shared by Russia.
By contrast, Pashinian’s government is now pinning hopes on U.S. and European Union efforts to broker an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. Mirzoyan on Wednesday praised Iran’s strong support for Armenia’s territorial integrity but gave no indications that Yerevan would like Tehran to replace the Western powers as a mediator.
“I want to emphasize that the Islamic Republic of Iran supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia,” Amir-Abdollahian said in Yerevan. He reaffirmed Tehran’s support for the Armenian government’s position on transport links with Azerbaijan.
