Armenian FM thanks Iran's 'balanced' stance on Nagorno-Karabakh dispute

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian praised Iran for its logical stance on his country's dispute with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. "I appreciate Iran for its moderate and balanced stances on Armenia's dispute with Azerbaijan," Nalbandian said in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif here in Tehran on Monday. The Armenian foreign minister reiterated that during his talks with Zarif they have discussed achievement of a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. Despite facing strong international pressures, the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders have failed to agree on the basic principles of ending the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict put forward by Russia, the United States, and France in 2011. Armenia and Azerbaijan thus remain officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh and the dispute is a major source of tension in the South Caucasus region wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey. No country - not even Armenia - officially recognizes Karabakh as an independent state. The mountainous rebel region has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since it broke free of Baku's control after a fierce war in the early 1990s that killed 30,000 people.