Diplomacy: Sergei Lavrov to Attend Regional Meeting in Iran with Armenian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Iranian Counterparts

The heads of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, and Armenian diplomacy, Ararat Mirzoïan, will be in Iran on Monday for a meeting with their regional counterparts, their respective ministries said on Sunday, without specifying the subject for the moment.

The Iranian agency Irna, for its part, indicated that the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran will discuss “peace talks” between Yerevan and Baku.

Tensions have been at their highest between the two neighbors since Azerbaijan’s lightning victory last month in Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave which was mainly populated by Armenians. “We confirm Sergei Lavrov’s planned discussions in Tehran on Monday,” declared, without further details, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, to the Russian agencies Tass and Ria.

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Ararat Mirzoïan would travel to Tehran “at the invitation of the Iranian side” and that he “will participate in a meeting of the consultative platform (3+3)”. referring to a meeting format including Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Georgia.

The full list of participants has not yet been specified by the authorities, but Georgia announced on Sunday evening that it would be absent. “Georgia is not participating in this meeting and has never taken part in meetings of this “3+3” format,” Tbilisi said.

The Irna agency said that the ministers would discuss “issues relating to the South Caucasus”, a region where Azerbaijan and Armenia are located, and “regional cooperation”. The meetings of this group of countries aim to “resolve the region’s problems” together, “without the interference of extra-regional and Western countries,” said the Iranian agency Irna.

Armenia is Russia’s traditional ally, but it accuses it of having abandoned it in the face of Azerbaijan, much richer and better armed, which Moscow denies. For its part, Moscow has turned to Tehran since the start of its offensive in Ukraine, in 2022, to obtain military but also economic aid, the two countries being heavily sanctioned by the West. Western countries accuse Iran of supporting the Russian assault by providing it with drones.