Iran hopes for fair settlement of Karabakh dispute
A senior Iranian official has called for the fair settlement of a lingering dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
“The territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan is very important to us and we hope the Karabakh dispute could be resolved fairly,” Ali Rabiei, Iran’s minister of labor, welfare and social security, said Friday.
The Iranian minister, who was meeting with Azerbaijan’s Prime Minister Artur Rasizade in Baku, called Azerbaijan a major regional ally for Iran, attaching importance to relations between the two countries.
The decade-long conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region has yet to be resolved permanently. The area which is inhabited by ethnic Armenians is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. A deadly war in the 1990s which killed some 30,000 people on both sides saw the ethnic Armenian troops capture the entire area.
Rabiei also urged the removal of existing obstacles to cooperation between Tehran and Baku, saying that Iran is ready to engage in joint projects with Azerbaijan in various fields, including energy, mining, the pharmaceutical industry, rehabilitation services and the training of workforce.
The Azeri premier, for his part, described the current state of relations between Iran and Azerbaijan as very good, saying, however, that the two countries should put more efforts into bolstering bilateral ties.
Rasizade called Iran a powerful and influential country in the region, adding that Baku is keen to continue cooperating with Iran as a matter of strengthening Islamic unity among the regional countries.
He also emphasized the need for the two countries to up their level of economic cooperation and urged the Iran-Azerbaijan Joint Economic Commission to be more active.
MS/NN/HMV
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