TEHRAN -- President Ebrahim Raisi said Saturday Iran is ready to play an effective role in preventing new clashes and any geopolitical change in the South Caucasus region.
In a phone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the president said Iran, as a powerful neighbor of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, strongly opposes any new tension in the region.
Raisi reiterated Iran’s support for territorial integrity of all the countries in the region, expressing Tehran’s preparedness to help solve regional issues through “diplomatic” dialogue.
Iran believes that regional problems should be settled through negotiations among the countries in the region, Raisi said.
The president said Iran is resolutely opposed to the involvement of foreign actors in the developments pertaining to the Caucasus.
Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Thursday of amassing troops close to their joint border as tensions continue to rise over the Karabakh region.
Located in the South Caucasus, the landlocked region has been at the center of a dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia for more than three decades.
Since gaining independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, the two neighboring countries have fought two wars, in 1994 and 2020, over the mountainous territory.
Karabakh, acknowledged as part of Azerbaijan by the international community, has a predominantly Armenian population that is refusing to accept Baku’s sovereignty over the territory since 1994 when their secession sparked a war that left 30,000 people dead.
Russia brokered a peace deal between the two sides in November 2020 bringing an end to a 44-day war in the region. It has since deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.
In his remarks, Raisi lauded progressing economic cooperation with Armenia and the implementation of agreements previously signed between the two sides. He said Tehran is ready to improve economic and commercial exchanges with Yerevan.
Pashinyan, for his part, outlined the latest developments in the South Caucasus region and said Iran has always played an effective and constructive role in maintaining and improving peace, stability and security in the region.
The Armenian prime minister’s office said during the telephone conversation, Pashinyan and Raisi discussed issues related to the situation in the region.
In its readout of the Saturday call, the office said Pashinyan voiced Yerevan’s readiness to “hold urgent discussions” with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in a bid to alleviate tensions.
Muhammad Jamshidi, the head of the president’s office, said the discussions included “1-Any geopolitical change and the borders of the region are our red line 2- Apart from the 3+3 format, cooperation with any foreign side, carrying out exercises with them and suspicious trips only complicates the situation 3. Iran is ready to provide any assistance to both sides to resolve the issue”.
The 3+3 format includes Russia, Turkey and Iran, along with three South Caucasian nations, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
On Friday, Russia summoned Armenia’s ambassador to Moscow following Yerevan’s announcement t hold joint drills with the United States.
The Armenian defense ministry has alleged that the purpose of the September 11-20 “Eagle Partner 2023” drills was to prepare its forces to take part in international peacekeeping missions.
“The Armenian leadership had in recent days taken a series of unfriendly steps,” the Russian ministry said in a statement.
Moscow, meanwhile, protested to Yerevan about a trip by Pashinyan’s wife to Kiev, which has been in war with Russia since last February.