ARMENIA IN CONTEXT OF IRANIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM: “THERE CANNOT BE SO EVIDENT CONNECTION”

Regnum, Russia
May 11 2006

“A stage-by-stage and, which is most important, well-considered
settlement of the Iranian problem could encourage easing tension in the
world on the whole. And, on the contrary, any deviations can provoke
a completely unexpected deterioration of new conflicts including the
one in Nagorno Karabakh,” chair of comparative politics department
of Moscow State Institute of International relations of Foreign
Affairs Ministry of the Russian Federation (MGIMO), Mikhail Ilyin,
PhD, has said to a REGNUM correspondent.

According to him, the Iranian nuclear program is “a complicated issue
that influences world development ion the whole, various countries
and regions, and moreover, Transcaucasus, and Armenia, which is a
close neighbor of Iran.” However, talking about the risk of Armenia
becoming a hostage to Iranian nuclear ambitions, Mikhail Ilyin said
that “there cannot be so evident connection” in this.

Earlier today, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei approved
decision made by the UN Security Council to postpone the issue of
sanctions against Iran.