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Iran ready to mediate in Nagorno-Karabakh dispute: Envoy

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  • Iran ready to mediate in Nagorno-Karabakh dispute: Envoy

    Press TV, Iran
    July 13 2013


    Iran ready to mediate in Nagorno-Karabakh dispute: Envoy


    The Iranian Ambassador to Baku Mohsen Pakaein has repeated Tehran's
    readiness to mediate between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the settlement
    of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.


    Pakaein said that Iran could act as a mediator in resolving the
    dispute provided that Armenia and Azerbaijani give their consent.


    `If the two countries are willing, Iran, as an influential country in
    the region, the chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the
    also an active member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
    (OIC), will enter negotiations with the countries in question and will
    present its views on the resolution of the dispute,' he said.

    He said the security of the region could be at stake as there will
    always be the risk of a war unless the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute is
    settled.

    Given the fact that Iran has land borders with both Azerbaijan and
    Armenia, any violation of the region's stability in the border areas
    would have a negative impact on Iran as well, the envoy added.

    Both Azerbaijan and Armenia claim the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh,
    which is largely populated by Armenians but located in Azerbaijan.

    Ethnic Armenian forces took control over the enclave which accounts
    for 16 percent of Azerbaijan in the early 1990s during a six-year war
    with the country that took place from February 1988 to May 1994.

    The conflict left an estimated 30,000 people dead and one million
    displaced before the two sides agreed to a cease-fire in 1994.
    However, a peace accord has never been signed and the dispute still
    remains unsettled.

    Iran has on several occasions offered to intervene in the dispute.

    "We believe that the Karabakh issue will be resolved through dialogue
    and the commitment of both sides to justice, and Tehran is ready to
    negotiate with them within this framework," Iran's President Mahmoud
    Ahmadinejad said in a joint press conference with his Azeri
    counterpart Ilham Aliyev in November, 2010.

    AR/HGH

    http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/13/313630/iran-ready-to-mediate-in-karabakh-issue/




    From: A. Papazian
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