to report «iusnews»; Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi underlined that all the existing problems in the Caucasus region could be settled through convergence and dialogue among regional states.
President Rayeesi made the remarks in a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Tehran on Monday.
Iran’s president stated that the convergence and consensus created among the regional countries are effective in solving the existing problems and challenges in the Caucasus region.
There is no unsolvable problem in the Caucasus region, the president underscored, calling for the employment of the capacity of the "Caucasus Cooperation Group" at the Tehran meeting to solve the existing challenges and problems.
Fidan, for his part, highlighted Turkey’s alignment with Iran to solve the regional issues through intraregional talks without foreign interference, and described holding the meeting of the "Caucasus Cooperation Group" as a basis for solving the existing challenges among the countries of the Caucasus.
He also noted that Iran plays an effective role in establishing peace in the region.
Before the meeting with President Rayeesi, the Turkish diplomat joined his counterparts from Iran, Russia, Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan for the 2nd meeting of the “3+3” Regional Platform about the South Caucasus developments.
Addressing the second 3+3 regional platform meeting, dubbed Time for Peace, Cooperation, and Progress in the South Caucasus, in Tehran on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said war has come to an end in the South Caucasus region and the time is now ripe for promotion of peace, collaboration and progress in the region.
Pointing to a "historic opportunity" provided now for all countries in the region to boost cooperation, he stated the Tehran meeting aims to utilize regional capacities to solve issues, increase collective cooperation and establish peace and achieve economic development and welfare.
The participants will have the chance to exchange views about issues in the Caucasus region and ways to improve mutual relations, he added.
The meeting came weeks after Baku re-established control over Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning ‘counterterrorism’ operation, which was launched on September 19 and lasted for around 24 hours. The authorities of the ethnic Armenian enclave, which broke away from Azerbaijan in the 1990s, formally dissolved themselves on September 28 as part of the ceasefire. As the local militia surrendered to Azerbaijani troops, more than 100,000 Armenian civilians fled east, nearly 90% of Nagorno-Karabakh’s estimated population.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but had been populated by ethnic Armenians.
The two Caucasian nations have been embroiled in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh since the late 1980s, when the predominantly ethnic Armenian region moved to break away from Azerbaijan and join Armenia. With the Soviet Union on the verge of collapse, tensions erupted into a major war in the early 1990s that claimed thousands of lives. The fighting ended with the signing of a ceasefire in 1994, although fighting has broken out sporadically since.
One of the bloodiest clashes – which is often referred to as the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War – took place in 2020 and resulted in Azerbaijan taking control of a significant amount of territory. The hostilities ended in a Russia-mediated ceasefire. Since the truce, the two sides have accused each other of breaching the peace deal.
Iranian officials have repeatedly stressed Tehran’s opposition to geopolitical changes in the region, and reaffirmed the country is ready to use all its capacities to establish peace in the Caucasus region and its growth and development.
