Tehran Ready to Help Establish Peace in Karabakh

EghtesadOnline: Iran said it is ready to help establish sustainable peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Karabakh, urging both sides to the conflict to respect internationally recognized borders.

News ID: ۷۸۶۷۶۶

31 July 2021

In a statement on Thursday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh voiced concern about the continuation of border clashes between Azeri and Armenian forces and stressed the need for both sides to observe restraint and resolve their border disputes peacefully, IRNA reported.

Khatibzadeh also regretted the killing and injuring of individuals from Azerbaijan and Armenia during the latest clashes, after which both sides accused each other of escalating the situation.

On Wednesday, three Armenian troops were killed and two wounded in border clashes with Azerbaijani forces.

The two neighboring countries fought a six-week war last year in which Azeri troops drove Armenian forces out of swathes of territory they had long controlled in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. The conflict claimed thousands of lives.

Although the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, ended in a Russian-brokered ceasefire, clashes on the border have persisted at irregular intervals this year, occasionally causing fatalities.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday that he would ask for the deployment of Russian border forces at the common border with Azerbaijan to prevent further escalation after the latest clashes.

“I think it makes sense to consider the question of stationing outposts of Russian border guards along the entire stretch of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border,” Pashinyan said, addressing a cabinet meeting.

He said the move will help the two sides “carry out work on demarcation and delimitation of the border without the risk of military clashes.”

“We are planning to discuss the matter with our Russian colleagues.”