Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

An Iranian MP has condemned the long-lasting occupation of the Azerbaijani territory by the Armenian armed forces.

Head of the visiting Iranian delegation, member of the committee on National Security and Foreign Policy of Iranian parliament Javad Jahangirzade told Trend news agency in Baku on September 24 that the occupation of part of the Azerbaijani territory concerns not only Iran, but also the entire Islamic world.

"I can confidently say that no nation living currently in this region wants the conflicts, wars and tensions," Jahangirzade said. "Nations should build relations on the basis of international law."

He also criticized the OSCE Minsk Group's activity over the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Jahangirzade said Iran initially maintained that the OSCE Minsk Group, brokering the long-standing conflict, is not strong enough to resolve the conflict.

According to him, Iran has the potential to settle the conflict, and this has been repeatedly emphasized by the country's leadership.

"We hope that the conflict will be settled soon and the IDPs will return to their homeland," Jahangirzade said.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.