YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Armenia will maintain its close relationship with neighboring Iran despite renewed U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday.
“We need to develop relations with Iran very intensively and they must be mutually beneficial,” Pashinyan told reporters, commenting on the impact of the sanctions on Armenian-Iranian ties.
He said he sees “no need to make any changes” in Armenia’s policy towards Iran. “We should not only maintain the good level of our relations but also try to raise them to a new level,” he stressed.
Pashinyan said that the U.S. administration “understands our situation and policy.” Having good relations with the United States is also “very important” to Armenia, he added.
A team of officials from the U.S. state and treasury departments visited Yerevan last week to explain the sanctions re-imposed by President Donald Trump earlier this year to Armenia’s government and private sector. No details of their meetings were made public.
Iran was also high on the agenda of U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton’s October trip to Armenia. Bolton said he hold Pashinyan that the Trump administration will enforce the sanctions “very vigorously.” Commercial and other traffic through the Armenian-Iranian border is therefore “going to be a significant issue” for Washington, he said.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament a few days after his talks with Bolton, Pashinyan made clear that his government will maintain Armenia’s “special” relationship with Iran.
The premier on Tuesday did not deny reports that some Armenian commercial banks have started closing the accounts of Iranian citizens, most of them Armenian descent, living in Armenia. He insisted that those private banks are not acting on his government’s orders. He suggested that they have commercial operations with the U.S. and do not want to be sanctioned by Washington.
Pashinyan met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani when he visited New York in September to address a session of the UN General Assembly. The two leaders discussed ways of expanding Armenian-Iranian trade and reaffirmed their support for joint energy projects planned or already implemented by the two states.
With Armenia’s borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey closed due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iran as well as Georgia serve as the sole conduits for the landlocked country’s trade with the outside world. Armenia also imports Iranian natural gas and other fuel.
I think we ( Armenians ) should keep maintain good relationship with IRAN,,,,,what ever trump does with this sanction , sanction , blockade , these type of goverment pressures never works , history shows from long time ago, look for turkey border blockade , people still continue there daily lives , we don ‘t need more enemies plus we need muslim friend over there that surrounded with muslim states….I hope Armenian goverment leaders right decision.
Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far away.
The bullying game is over.
I approve Prime Minister
Fully and completly
I hate to sound cynical, opportunistic etc. But Armenia could really benefit economically from the US sanctions. This is the time and the opportunity for Armenian firms and individuals to establish trade contacts and relationships that should last beyond the sanctions. I’m not suggesting breaking the law and ruin the diplomatic relations so far established with the US and the EU. However, since we have a wayver like the Turks, we should not ignore its possibilities. Armenia should be a trade hub.
I agree.
I hate to sound cynical, opportunistic etc. But Armenia could really benefit economically from the US sanctions. This is the time and the opportunity for Armenian firms and individuals to establish trade contacts and relationships that should last beyond the sanctions. I’m not suggesting breaking the law and ruin the diplomatic relations so far established with the US and the EU. However, since we have a waiver like the Turks, we should not ignore its possibilities. Armenia should be a trade hub.
The US must realize that as they succeed in isolating Iran, Iran will have fewer and fewer sane actors to deal with. Some channel of communications must exist between them, since we are dealing with a fatalistic religion with a doctrine that worships death for the sake of their “Imams”. Have you all forgotten the scenes of decades ago of Iranian children holding plastic keys to paradise assaulting Iraqi machine guns? A people who can do that to their children are capable of anything. Knowing all this, I simply can’t understand what the US is doing to Iran and why.
It’s a well established fact that Nikolik and his gaggle of liberal globalists were directly funded by the CIA run NED based in Washington DC and Goerge Soros’ Open Society Foundation. This is not speculation. This is fact. More worrying, Nikol’s Western funded incompetent government is saturated with Russophobes. The south Caucasus is facing a major calamity. We may most likely have a war in Iran and Artsakh. Despite it all, the hopelessly ignorant, restless, tribal and arrogant “Armenian Street” put into power Western-leaning, Globalist, Liberal and Pacifistic ideologues with absolutely no experience in international relations, geopolitics and warfare. Worst, Armenia, a country that lives because of its ties with Russia, now has Russophobes in government. It’s all a very dangerous combination. If this very toxic political climate in the country does not change soon, we will at the very least lose Artsakh and set Armenia back another 10 or 20 years. All in all, the “Armenian Street” (including the worthless Diaspora) is oblivious to all this because of its Western fetish, political illiteracy, shortsightedness, jealousy and hate. Armenians therefore deserve all that’s waiting them.
If it is a fact, then by all means, please present the facts!