Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Dehqan discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict late on Wednesday at a meeting held on the sidelines of an international security conference in Moscow.
“The heads of the defense agencies of Armenia and Iran once again emphasized that the problem has no military solution,” the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The statement gave no other details of the talks, saying only that they also touched upon other, unspecified “issues of mutual interest.”
Sargsian already met Dehqan as well as other Iranian leaders when he paid an official visit to Tehran in late January. “It is not acceptable to resort to force to solve regional problems,” the Iranian defense chief said after their talks.
Dehqan received Azerbaijan’s visiting Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov earlier this month. He reportedly urged Azerbaijan and Armenia to prevent “foreign and irrelevant” powers from interfering in the Karabakh dispute. It is not clear to which third countries Dehqan referred.
Sargsian’s visit to Iran underscored what appear to be growing contacts between the Iranian and Armenian militaries. The Armenian Defense Ministry said he and Dehqan “expressed readiness to expand and develop bilateral relations.”
While in Tehran, the Armenian minister also visited a military research center and the headquarters of a state-run company manufacturing electronic equipment, including for the Iranian military.
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