According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s readout of the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian emphasized “Tehran’s rejection of geopolitical changes in the borders of regional countries.”
“We have announced this policy openly and also informed different sides,” he was quoted as telling Mirzoyan.
Iranian leaders, including President Ebrahim Raisi, have repeatedly made such statements over the past year amid Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on restoring transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
Such links are envisaged by the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The deal specifically commits Yerevan to opening rail and road links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has claimed that it calls for an exterritorial land corridor that would pass through Syunik, the sole Armenian province bordering Iran. Armenian leaders deny this, saying that Azerbaijani citizens and cargo cannot be exempt from Armenian border controls.
Iran is also strongly opposed to the corridor. It has repeatedly warned Azerbaijan against attempting to strip the Islamic Republic of the common border and transport links with Armenia.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry indicated that “regional security and stability” was high on the agenda of the Geneva talks. It said Mirzoyan briefed Amir-Abdollahian “on the latest developments in the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
A statement released by the ministry said the two ministers also discussed Armenian-Iranian economic ties and, in particular, bilateral projects on energy, transport and public infrastructures.
“Fortunately, we are moving toward implementing the roadmap of the two countries to expand bilateral relations,” Amir-Abdollahian was reported to say.
At the same, he said, Tehran and Yerevan should “step up joint efforts” to boost bilateral trade in line with recent understandings reached by Raisi and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Armenian government data shows the total volume of Armenian-Iranian trade rising by 41 percent to over $710 million in 2022. Meeting with Pashinian in Tehran last November, Raisi said the two sides want to help increase it to $3 billion in the near future.