Nagorno-Karabakh crisis and its impacts on regional security

New York, Nov 4, IRNA – Full-scale conflict of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh will have long-term security repercussions for the regional security and Iran is expected to use all its capacity to help find an immediate settlement to the crisis, an analyst said on Sunday. Kaveh Afrasiabi, an expert of Iranian foreign policy issues, told IRNA correspondent that the crisis is so much deep and can be compared with Karabakh war in 1991-92 which led to a ceasefire in 1994. Some people believe that negotiations between Armenian and Azeri parties by mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group is enough, while the participation of representatives from Karabakh region is also necessary for the talks to yield fruit, Afrasiabi said. He said that the global spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has diverted the public attention from the danger of the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis. Everyone knows that Iran has based its foreign policy on good relations with neighbors and wants to strike balance to its relations with the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia, the expert said. Referring to Iran’s mediation role in the crisis in 1992 during the presidency of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Afrasiabi said that Iran has now once again offered to mediate between the warring sides. “As Turkey is not reliable by the Armenian side on the one hand and Iran has good relations with both countries on the other hand, it is likely that a peace conference will be held in Tehran in the future.” He said that Iran would not be happy with the victory of one of the warring sides over the other one and such a victory would not benefit Iran’s national security.