Iran supports Azerbaijan over Karabakh

Iran’s Vice-President for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad-Reza Mir-Tajeddini says Tehran has always supported Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

“Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan and Iran will not accept any act of aggression against this region or its occupation,” Mir-Tajeddini said on Sunday.

Mir-Tajeddini said officials from Turkey, Georgia and Russia should hold a meeting with Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities to resolve the Karabakh dispute through negotiation and based on justice.

Referring to US interferences in Karabakh dispute, Mir-Tajeddini said US meddling has never yielded any result but “damaging relations between other countries.”

Iran has extended an offer to mediate between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the dispute, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki earlier suggested a trilateral meeting with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts to resolve the dispute.

Both Azerbaijan and Armenia claim the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is largely populated by Armenians but located in Azerbaijan.

Ethnic Armenian forces took control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region during a war with Azerbaijan in the early 1990s.

The conflict left an estimated 30,000 people dead and one million displaced before the two sides agreed to a ceasefire in 1994. However, a peace accord has never been signed.