Epress.am News from Armenia
“The OSCE Minsk Group hasn’t reached any progress toward the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in over 19 years,” said Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohammad Baghir (alternative spelling: Bagir) Bahrami at an international conference titled ‘Republic of Azerbaijan: previous experiences and future prospects’ organized by the Caucasian Research Center of Tehran University, reports News.az, citing APA news agency.
“On the contrary, it complicated the situation. The Minsk Group doesn’t make an effort for the fair solution to the conflict and it is not able to do that at all,” he said.
Bahrami expressed his opinion on the Madrid Principles as well.
“There are no clear reports about this project. Deployment of international peacekeeping forces would mean officially separating Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan. Iran insists on unchanged international borders. Iran voted for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan at the UN many times,” the Iranian diplomat continued.
The ambassador said Iran was the only neighboring country that suffered from the Karabakh conflict.
‘The Karabakh conflict led to a change in the geographical structure of Azerbaijan’s border with Iran… [the] Karabakh conflict has a direct relation to the Iran’s national security and interests,” he said.
The ambassador noted that Iran will continue its efforts toward peace and stability in the Caucasus and that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed to Iran’s role as a mediator in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.
It should be noted, as well, that Tehran has always emphasized a neutral stance on the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, repeatedly stating that they will accept only a peaceful solution to the conflict.