ArmInfo.Tehran, is, no doubt, interested in a security platform with the participation of Armenia and Russia, Vardan Voskanyan, Head of the Chair of Iranian Studies, Yerevan State University, said in an interview with ArmInfo.
"It is not known if any specific steps are being made toward establishing such trilateral cooperation. In any case, nothing like that is on the open agenda. Interested in the South Caucasus, Tehran is closely following all the regional processes for the primary reason that they – and the Caucasus-related geopolitics – directly concern Iran," the scholar said.
Iran is the only state considering Armenia's territorial integrity to be a redline for itself. And Tehran showed that not only by means of political rhetoric, but also by specific steps, particular the recent military exercise along the Iranian-Azerbaijani border. Iran will never allow Turkish-Azerbaijani encroachments on the Armenian border.
Mr Voskanyan does not rule out Armenian-Iranian consultations on the "geopolitical impulses" in the region, particularly on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. He notes that such consultations are belated, and the Yerevan-Tehran cooperation needs higher efficiency.
"One more all-important issue on the Armenian-Iranian agenda is the North-South highway construction. Many people view the project only in its economic aspect, whereas the North-South is a most important component of the entire region's security, to say nothing of its geopolitical significance. Tehran is perfectly aware of that. Evidence thereof is also Iran's statements that the Goradiz-Meghri-Julfa-Ordubad-Yeraskh railway can by no means be considered the trunk line between Armenia and Iran. Rather, it is the North- South highway," Mr Voskanyan said. -t–
