Sovereignty of Armenia or any other state important for Iran - FM

ArmInfo. Armenia has given comprehensive explanations to Iran's concerns regarding the possibility of a geopolitical situation in the region. This was  stated by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in an interview  with the IRNA agency.

According to him, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a telephone conversation took  place between the heads of the foreign ministries of the two  countries, and Yerevan sent its Deputy Foreign Minister to Tehran.

"They gave exhaustive explanations. What happened and what was  supposed to happen - and this was called 'geopolitical changes in the  region' - are completely different things. I am not saying that what  is going to happen now is not a cause for concern, because there are  concerns that I raise," Araghchi said, adding that when discussions  began on the so- called "Zangezur corridor" project, the main idea  was to seize the Armenian province of Syunik and create a territorial  link between Nakhchivan and mainland Azerbaijan. "The idea was to  seize this province. At that time, we expressed serious concerns.  Then there was talk of creating a corridor 5-10 kilometers wide that  would connect these two regions and would be under the sovereignty of  Azerbaijan, not Armenia. At that time, we had serious geopolitical  concerns. Our armed forces were stationed abroad, and we created a  military presence. But Azerbaijan assured us that such ideas were  excluded. Now all these ideas have turned into a road that will be  built by an American company registered in Armenia and under the laws  and jurisdiction of Armenia. This road is under the sovereignty of  Armenia. No American troops will be stationed near us, and all of  Iran's red lines are respected," the head of the Iranian Foreign  Ministry emphasized.

He continued that this is just a private American engineering  company; neither a security nor a military one. There will be no  American forces there, and Armenia itself will provide security.  "They don't even allow American private security companies into the  country.

Araghchi added that Iran's position is that Tehran welcomes peace  between Armenia and Azerbaijan. "This has always been our position,  and we have even tried to establish peace between the two countries  ourselves. But we have always added that any foreign presence - in  any form - can have negative consequences for peace and stability in  the region. We have also conveyed this position to Armenia. Russia's  position is exactly the same as ours, although a little softer. But  they are also concerned about the American presence and have  expressed this concern. The joint statement signed by Armenia and  Azerbaijan in the presence of the US President says that the borders  of the region are immutable, the independence and territorial  integrity of all countries in the region are respected, and this is  our position. That is, from the very beginning, our position was that  no matter what steps are taken in the Caucasus, the borders of the  region should not change. It was important for us that the  sovereignty of Armenia and any other country is not undermined," the  Iranian Foreign Minister emphasized. Let us recall that on August 8,  Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President  Ilham Aliyev signed a joint "Declaration of Peace" in Washington. It  provides for a joint appeal to the Organization for Security and  Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to terminate the OSCE Minsk process and  related structures, as well as the creation of a transport corridor  through Armenian territory that will connect Azerbaijan with its  Nakhchivan exclave.  The TRIPP (Trump Route for International Peace  and Prosperity) project, a 42-km road in southern Armenia that will  hand over control of the road to the United States for 99 years,  according to experts, is capable of significantly changing the  geopolitical situation in the South Caucasus. On the same day, the  Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan initialed a peace  agreement, which consists of 17 articles. The preamble of the  document states that the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of  Azerbaijan, recognizing the urgent need to establish a just,  comprehensive and lasting peace in the region, striving to promote  the achievement of this goal through the establishment of interstate  relations, guided by the Charter of the United Nations, the  Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly  Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter  of the United Nations (1970), the Final Act of the Helsinki  Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (1975) and the  Almaty Declaration of December 21, 1991, and striving to develop  relations based on the norms and principles enshrined in the said  documents, expressing mutual will to establish good- neighborly  relations among themselves, agreed to establish peace and interstate  relations.