Turan News Agency, Azerbaijan
Feb 25 2010

Iran can influence fair settlement to Karabakh conflict – Azeri official

Baku, 25 February: Iran has borders both with Azerbaijan and Armenia
and is interested in the settlement of Nagornyy Karabakh conflict,
press secretary of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Elxan Poluxov told
Turan news agency in a comment on a statement by Iranian ambassador to
Azerbaijan Mohammad Baqer Bahrami, who said the Azerbaijani
authorities approved Tehran’s involvement in the settlement process.

Part of Azerbaijani territories bordering Iran are under Armenian
occupation and from this point of view Iran shows interest in the
settlement [of the conflict]. Considering Iran’s close economic ties
with Armenia, Tehran has mechanisms to influence on the fair
settlement of the conflict, Poluxov said.

It should be noted that Bahrami also dismissed the statement by the
Iranian ambassador in Yerevan who, according to Armenian media, said
that Iran bordered Nagornyy Karabakh.

Iran’s attempts to mediate the settlement to the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict failed in 1992 and had negative consequences for Azerbaijan.

On the next day after signing of the cease-fire agreement between
Azerbaijan and Armenia in Tehran, Armenian forces occupied a strategic
point in Nagornyy Karabakh – the town of Susa.