Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, Iran’s Interior Minister, a week after a missile from the combat zone in Armenia and Azerbaijan conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh hit an Iranian village, said that the governments of Azerbaijan and Armenia had been told to keep closer control over the fighting and they will “take appropriate measures if necessary”.
Nonetheless, the government of Iran has offered to mediate in the conflict.
Saeed Khatibzadeh, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman has said, “We call on both sides to exercise restraint, to end the conflict immediately and to resume negotiations”.
Iran is home to both Armenian and Azerbaijani minority, The Azeris being one of the most influential ethnic groups in Iran.
Ali Khameni, Iran’s Spiritual leader is of the Azerbaijani descent.
Unlike the Armenians, who are not very conspicuous, many Azeris openly back their “Muslim brothers” in Azerbaijan.
Last week, they organized several large rallies in cities in western Iran.
“Death to Armenia” was one of the slogans at the protests, which were broken up by security forces, according to Iranian media.
President Hassan Rouhani has told Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian that Armenia must try to end the conflict.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has its origins in the early 20th century, though the present conflict began in 1988, when the Karabakh Armenians demanded that Karabakh be transferred from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia.
The conflict escalated into a full-scale war in the early 1990s.
The ceasefire of 1994 provided relative stability. The 2020 conflict began on 27 september 2020, and has been going on since.