Tehran hopes that the latest disputes in the Syunik Province border zones, especially in the Kapan-Goris road section, will be resolved in a way that the implementation of the goal of reopening the transportation routes and unblocking won’t be disrupted, the Iranian Embassy in Armenia said in response to an inquiry from Armenpress.
The Iranian embassy said that ever since the new border delimitation issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan has entered the agenda, Tehran has been hopeful that the sides will urgently reach the kind of a mutually-acceptable solution that would ensure the normal course of relations between Armenia and its neighbors—and with minimum consequences. The embassy mentioned that the reopening of regional transportation routes and unblocking has been one of the main clauses of the Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan statements.
Tehran hopes that the disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over general delimitation will be resolved in peaceful atmosphere, and without any tension or disruption in communication routes.
“We hope that the sides will resolve the latest disagreements in the Syunik province’s border zones and especially the Kapan-Goris road section in a way that the implementation of the goal of reopening of transportation routes and unblocking won’t be disrupted. Unfortunately, in the past two days we are witnessing a disruption of transit through this road as a result of the latest developments in the Syunik province, which has caused problems not only for the normal life of Armenia’s civilian population, but also a number of Iranian cargo vehicles carrying out shipments from Iran to Armenia. Due to the difficulty of the existing situation at this road’s 21 kilometer section it is required for the sides to make efforts within the framework of goodwill principle in the direction of ensuring normal course of communication and transit, until reaching an exact and concrete situation over this matter. Thus, we still hope that the disputes related to the general delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be solved in a peaceful environment without any tension or disruption in communication routes,” the Iranian embassy said.
In relation to the importance of guaranteeing the normal course of communication, the Iranian side stressed that they have always expressed their viewpoints to the authorized bodies of Armenia.
“We are hopeful that parallel to the ongoing negotiations over solving the existing disputes regarding the use of the Kapan-Goris route, the improvement and development works of alternative routes will swiftly take place, so that the conditions return to normal both from perspective of Armenia’s citizens and our commercial relations with Armenia,” the Iranian embassy said.
As reported earlier, the Azerbaijani soldiers have blocked the Shurnukh-Karmrakar section of the Goris-Kapan motorway as of 11pm Wednesday, and they refuse to reopen it. About four dozen cars on this road section were evacuated Wednesday night.
And the Office of the Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of Armenia reported that at around 12:20pm on Thursday, the Azerbaijani servicemen had closed off as well the road leading from Goris city to Vorotan village.
Thursday's trilateral—Armenian-Russian-Azerbaijani—respective talks had ended in the evening, but to no avail. The Azerbaijani side still keeps these road sections closed.
