“For us, Armenia is a very important country, a good and honest neighbor,” the diplomat, Mehdi Sobhani, told journalists. “The security of the two countries is intertwined.”
Sobhani spoke as Iranians cast ballots in the first round of the early election triggered by the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials in a weekend helicopter last month. Iranian citizens visiting or living in Armenia were also able to vote for one of the four presidential candidates.
All of those candidates have been vetted and approved by the Guardians Council, an unelected constitutional watchdog whose members are directly and indirectly appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. None of them is expected to secure enough votes to be declared the outright winner in the tightly controlled contest.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian was among foreign dignitaries who attended Raisi’s funeral in Tehran on May 22. Meeting with Pashinian after the ceremony, Khamenei said that Iran will continue “expanding relations with Armenia.”
Khamenei also noted that the late Iranian president was “very sensitive to the border issues related to Armenia” and that “these sensitivities and cares should still be taken into account.” He seemed to allude to Tehran’s regular warnings against Azerbaijan’s possible attempts to strip the Islamic Republic of its common border or transport links with its sole Christian neighbor.
Sobhani stressed that this Iranian policy will remain unchanged regardless of a possible change of government in Iran or Armenia.
When asked about how Tehran will respond if Azerbaijan invades Syunik, the only Armenian region bordering Iran, to open an extraterritorial corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave, the envoy said: “If countries express a desire for peace, they must not use threatening language in their discourse.”
Iranian leaders have also signaled their unease over the Pashinian government’s efforts to reorient Armenia towards the West amid a sharp deterioration of the South Caucasus nation’s relations with Russia. They regularly warn Yerevan against allowing “the interference of outsiders in regional affairs.” Khamenei reportedly told Pashinian that their nations “must be able to secure our interests on our own.”