The talks took place on the sidelines of a Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Turkmenistan the day after a phone call between the foreign ministers of the two neighboring states. Armenian Foreign Minister Arara Mirzoyan visited Tehran as recently as on Monday.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said he discussed with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi “the implementation of the agreements reached during the visit.” It gave no details. The Iranian side issued no readout of the call.
According to Pezeshkian’s office, he discussed with Pashinian ways of expanding Armenian-Iranian relations “across all fields.”
“The Iranian president said greater coordination and closer collaboration would help build mutual trust, deepen understanding and further strengthen bilateral relations,” the office said in a statement. “He also stressed the need to maintain stable and lasting relations between Tehran and Yerevan.”
Pashinian’s office reported, meanwhile, that the two leaders expressed confidence that “Armenia-Iran relations will rise to a new level in the near future.” They previously met on September 23 during the UN General Assembly in New York.
The official readouts made no mention of the Armenian government’s plans to open a U.S.-administered transit corridor for Azerbaijan along Armenia’s border with Iran. Araghchi signaled Tehran’s lingering concerns about the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) during his October 5 meeting with Mirzoyan.
The top Iranian diplomat was reported to say that Yerevan should take seriously “the consequences and concerns arising from the presence and interference of third parties in the affairs of the Caucasus region.” For his part, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf reportedly told Mirzoyan that the South Caucasus “must not become an arena for geopolitical rivalry among foreign powers.”
“Iran is satisfied with the complete transparency we have demonstrated throughout the TRIPP process,” Mirzoyan said in the Armenian parliament on Wednesday.
The Iranian ambassador to Armenia, Khalil Shirgholami, earlier called for the creation of a “mechanism” to manage “potential risks of U.S. presence and threats to Iran” emanating from the TRIPP. Shirgholami said the U.S. and Israeli military campaign against the Islamic Republic underlined the perceived risks.