Iran’s President Hassan Rohani says the Islamic Republic will seek to expand relations with Armenia
TEHRAN—“The relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Armenia have always been friendly, close and based on mutual interests, and definitely in the future, Tehran’s efforts will focus on deepening relations and improving cooperation in all sectors,” President Hassan Rohani said in a meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian in Tehran on Monday, reports Press TV.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always expanded interaction with Armenia based on cultural and civilizational commonalities…,” the Iranian president said.
Rohani noted Armenia’s friendly positions adopted vis-à-vis Iran in the international scene.
For his part, Sarkisian underscored two decades of effective and constructive cooperation between Tehran and Yerevan, Press TV reports.
Iran has bartered more than 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas with Armenia’s electricity over the past six years.
The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said recently that around 1.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas has been traded with Armenian electricity during the 2007-2012 period.
Last year, the Islamic Republic exchanged some 481 million cubic meters of gas with the neighboring country’s electricity, the largest amount of bartering between Iran and Armenia in six years.
According to Public Radio of Armenia (Armradio.am), within the Sarkisian – Rohani meeting the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict was also discussed
The Media and Public Relations Department of the Office of the President of the Republic of Armenia informed that after the President of Iran expressed his gratitude to President Serzh Sarkisian for accepting the invitation and attending the inauguration ceremony, Serzh Sarkisian congratulated Hassan Rohani on the occasion of his election and wished him prolific activity and success in that sublime and responsible position.
The Presidents of the two countries discussed a wide scope of issues regarding both the bilateral and multilateral relations. The Presidents underscored that the agenda of Armenian-Iranian cooperation is very rich. Among other things, the interlocutors touched upon regional issues and the current state of the negotiations process regarding the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in particular.
How much more ties can there be? They must have an ulterior motive, perhaps political leveraging or slow assimilation and take over of the Armenian culture.
Lets divert all that excess water going to Azerbaijian, to Iran. Iran needs water, and we need Oil.
Azerbaijan is as a problem to Armenia as to IRAN
This is a greaz stepp for peace and stability in the region. Closer ties are needed with Iran since it will have great impact politicaly and economicaly.
Iran supports its Azeri muslim brothers, just like they openly supported Azerbaijan in the war in early 90s Look it up. Font trust Muslims they just using us
we choraglukh Armenians should learn some political lessons from parsiks, look at the bright side of this, Armenia keeps Iranian close ties as an wild card against doublecrossing West and enslaving East( Imean your big brothers paruskis!), ofcourse there is always paybacks and drawbacks in any kind of relationship, just like in the life
Armenia is a great neighbour to Iran and we have a common enemy: Republic of Azerbaijan. They call northern Iran “South Azerbaijan”. Well to me the Republic of Azerbaijan is Iran’s North Azerbaijan Province. By the way my grandmother (my father’s mother) was an ethnic Azerbaijani from Hamedan Province. But I am a nationalistic and patriotic Iranian, and ever since the Republic of Azerbaijan became a country, she has tried to undermine Iran’s rights to petroleum and hydrocarbon in the Caspian Sea, and she refuses to abide by the agreement the Russians had signed with Iran before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan says because the Soviet Union no longer exists, the contract is null and void…..now she refuses to sit down and negotiate a new contract with Iran over disputed oil fields in the Caspian, and sends foreign oil companies’ expedition boats and ships into disputed areas without having reached any agreement with Iran. When Iran objects, Azerbaijan reacts by provoking Iran’s ethnic Azerbaijanis (there are more Azeris in Iran than the Republic of Azerbaijan), which is a threat to Iran’s security. They fabricate stories about “Persian chauvinism”, and “Persian ethnocentrism”, which is all a load of manure, because Iran’s government has been pan-Islamic and has played down Iranian nationalism and patriotism, considering nationalism to be “un-Islamic”. This is one reason I oppose the Iranian government, however, as much as I hate the Iranian government, I support it when it comes to protecting Iran’s territorial integrity, and protecting Iran’s interests.
As for “Persian chauvinism”, which “Persian chauvinism”????? Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was born to an ethnic Azerbaijani father. Many influential Shia clerics in the Iranian government are ethnic Azerbaijani, going as far back as when Iran became an “Islamic Republic”. Most of the top commanders of the Iranian military are ethnic Azerbaijanis. Tehran’s bazaar is in the hands of ethnic Azerbaijanis, who also own more than half of the businesses in the Iranian capital. Go to this link and look under “Politicians” and count the number of prominent Azerbaijanis who have been in the Iranian government, past and present:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Iranian_Azerbaijanis
This nonsense was all started by Abulfaz Elchibey, who wanted nothing short of incorporating northern Iran into ONE big huge “united” Azerbaijan.
For the record, we have never changed the name of our northern province, and still call it by the name Azerbaijan.