Zarif to visit Russia, Azerbaijan next week

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh tweeted on Thursday that the top diplomat will respectively visit Moscow and Baku on Monday and Tuesday to discuss regional developments including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as well as bilateral issues with the senior officials of Russia and Azerbaijan, Press TV reported.

While in Moscow, Khatibzadeh said that Zarif is to exchange views with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Azerbaijan and Armenia began trading heavy fire over the region that belongs to the former in September after Armenian separatists started targeting Azeri soldiers.

The flare-up proved the deadliest confrontation between the two sides since a Yerevan-triggered war around three decades ago, and bubbled away until a recent Moscow-mediated ceasefire.

This is the second time that the Iranian foreign minister is visiting Moscow in as many months amid Tehran’s concerns about the situation in its neighborhood.

Throughout the firefight too, the Islamic Republic had been invariably advising all concerned parties towards restraint, respect for international borders, and cessation of hostilities.

Iran has also drawn up a plan aimed at permanent resolution of the dispute that it has presented in the Azeri, Armenian, Russian, and Turkish capitals. Following conclusion of the recent settlement, Tehran hailed that the agreement enjoyed serious “overlaps” with its proposal.

Source: Iran Daily