YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said on Thursday that Armenia will soon reopen its embassy in Iraq evacuated shortly before the launch of the US-led military campaign against Saddam Hussein’s regime last March.
"I can not give a specific date–except that it will happen soon," Oskanian said.
The Armenian embassy in Baghdad had opened in February and had only two diplomats on the eve of the invasion of Iraq. The two men–including Yerevan’s charge d’affaires Vazgen Khanjian–were ordered to leave the country on May 19–just one day before the onset of the war.
Oskanian said that the new geopolitical situation in Iraq and the broader region–as a result of the overthrow of Saddam’s regime–will not affect Armenia’s traditionally warm relations with the Arab countries of the Middle East. Most of them–notably Syria and Lebanon–have large ethnic Armenian communities.
"Our relations have always been very good and will remain such in years to come," Oskanian said.