Iran ready to mediate in Karabakh dispute: Spokesman

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has voiced Tehran’s readiness to mediate between Azerbaijan and Armenia to bring about a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh dispute.

“Regarding the Karabakh crisis, if the two countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia show willingness, we are ready to use all capacities to move in the direction [of resolving the dispute],” Mehmanparast said on Wednesday.

The Iranian official stressed regional cooperation to facilitate a peaceful resolution of crises, calling on Azerbaijan and Armenia to peacefully settle their dispute and remove tensions in the region.

The territory of Nagorno-Karabakh is claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Ethnic Armenian forces took control over the enclave, which accounts for 16 percent of Azerbaijan, in the early 1990s during a six-year war with Azerbaijan that lasted from February 1988 to May 1994.

The conflict left an estimated 30,000 people dead and one million displaced before the two sides agreed to a cease-fire in 1994. However, a peace accord has never been signed and the dispute still remains unsettled.

Iran has on several occasions offered to mediate in the dispute.