Iran is ready to help Armenia and Azerbaijan settle their conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region through peaceful approaches, a senior official said.
“Iran calls on both sides to exercise restraint and calm and stresses the need and necessity to avoid any escalation of the crisis, which will seriously endanger the collective interests of regional countries,” Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said in a meeting with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in Tehran on Monday, news outlets reported. The Karabakh conflict is an ethnic conflict between the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a region in Azerbaijan populated primarily by ethnic Armenians.
In early April, Azerbaijani and Armenian troops used artillery, tanks and other armaments against each other on a scale not seen since a separatist war concluded in 1994.
A Russian-mediated truce went into effect later that month, but sporadic clashes have since continued.
Shamkhani said Tehran and Yerevan have always enjoyed cordial relations, saying that officials of the two countries are taking effective steps that would guarantee mutual common interests.
Nalbandian said Iran plays a leading role in political and economic developments in the region, adding that bilateral economic relations can pave the way for strengthening cooperation in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.
