Azernews.Az

By Laman Sadigova

Tehran has come out with an offer to mediate in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hussein Jaber Ansari said that Iran is ready to mediate between Yerevan and Baku in the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Iran, which shares land borders with Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the occupied lands as well, stands by activating the peace process over the Karabakh conflict.

The current format of negotiations, being held in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group involving Russia, France and USA for more than 20 years, did not bring any step towards peace. The rising tension on the contact line of the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops and human fatalities are another proof of failure.

The MG co-chairs are jokingly called "tourists" in Baku, and media as well as various experts have repeatedly suggested that the lack of interests in resolving the conflict.

Regular monitoring of contact line under the auspices of the OSCE are more symbolic and do not reflect the real situation. The zeal, recently manifested by the OSCE MG to prevent the PACE to adopt reports accusing Yerevan’s aggressive policy, did not remain unnoticed in Baku.

Against this background, the proposal of Tehran to mediate in the conflict is quite timely as Baku seeks to see the real steps to solve the conflict and no doubt, to welcome this initiative with great interest.

Azerbaijani political scientist and Professor of Western University Fikret Sadikhov told AzerNews that this is not the first time when Iran expresses a desire to participate in negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“This initiative indeed can be very perspective. However, the main obstacle is that Iran has tight relations with Armenia – economic, strategic and cultural, and all this casts doubt on the objectivity of Iran. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan and Iran also enjoy good neighboring relations but it is not a reason to attract the Islamic Republic to this question. “

The OSCE Minsk Group members have frozen the conflict, and Azerbaijan, for sure, is interested in attracting more sides to solve it, said Sadikhov. “It seems like the Minsk Group tries to diminish the efforts of Azerbaijan, which can return the occupied lands back based on its strong army.“

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