Iran and Armenia want to deepen their relations and will not allow any “third country” to undermine them, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said after meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Tehran on Wednesday.
Rouhani said that he and Pashinian reached “good agreements in different areas” but did not go into details.
“As I said at the meeting with the prime minister, we are pleased with Armenia’s position on illegal and irrational sanctions against Iran,” he said, clearly referring to the U.S. sanctions re-imposed by President Donald Trump.
“The two countries are willing to keep moving forward based on their national resources and not to allow any third state to interfere in our cordial relations,” he added in a statement to the press cited by Iranian news agencies.
Pashinian did not mention the sanctions at the joint news briefing. But he did describe Iran as a “friendly country” and reaffirm Armenia’s desire to forge closer ties with the Islamic Republic.
“The weather in our relations is every good,” declared the Armenian leader, who was making his first official visit to Tehran.
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton discussed with Pashinian implications of the U.S. sanctions for Armenian-Iranian ties during a trip to Yerevan in October. Bolton said Washington will be enforcing them “very vigorously” and that traffic through the Armenian-Iranian border is therefore “going to be a significant issue.”
In November, a team of officials from the U.S. state and treasury departments visited Yerevan to explain the sanctions Armenia’s government and private sector. Pashinian made clear afterwards that that Yerevan will “deepen not only economic but also political relations” with Tehran.
With Armenia’s borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey closed due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iran as well as Georgia serve as the sole conduits for the landlocked country’s trade with the outside world. Armenia also imports Iranian natural gas and diesel fuel.
Closer commercial ties between the two neighboring states appeared to be a key focus of Pashinian’s talks with Rouhani. The Iranian president said that his country is ready to sell more gas to Armenia and also use Armenian territory for gas supplies to Georgia.
“Armenia is ready to be a transit for Iranian gas,” Pashinian said in this regard.
Armenia is also willing to boost imports of Iranian gas, Pashinian said, while cautioning that the two sides have yet to agree on its price. “This is a crucial issue in terms of the attractiveness of such a deal,” he explained.
Officials in Yerevan have long said that Armenia buys over 80 percent of its gas from Russia because Russian gas is cheaper than Iranian.
Armenia currently pays for Iranian gas with electricity exported to the Islamic Republic. This swap arrangement is due to be expanded significantly after the ongoing construction of a new Armenian-Iranian power transmission line is completed in 2020 or 2021.
Rouhani and Pashinian reportedly discussed this project on Wednesday. According to Pashinian’s press office, they also agreed to take “practical steps” towards finally building a major hydroelectric plant on the Armenian-Iranian border.
In his comments to the press, Pashinian also said he is looking forward to the implementation of a free-trade agreement between Iran and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. “This is going to open up new opportunities for increasing our trade,” he said.
According to official Armenian statistics, Armenia’s trade with Iran soared by over 40 percent, to almost $364 million, in 2018.
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