Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian brought up the Eagle Partner 2023 exercise in a phone call with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan that took place late on Wednesday.
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, he told Mirzoyan that “the presence of foreign forces could further complicate the situation in the region.” Only the three South Caucasus states as well as Russia, Iran and Turkey can achieve a lasting peace there, added Amir-Abdollahian.
The ten-day exercise reportedly involves 85 U.S. and 175 Armenian soldiers. According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, they are simulating a joint peacekeeping operation in an imaginary conflict zone.
The drills are held amid a deepening rift between Russia and Armenia. The Russian Foreign Ministry listed them among Yerevan’s “unfriendly steps” against Moscow when it handed a note of protest to the Armenian ambassador on September 8.
“I don’t think [the exercise] is good for anyone, including Armenia,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said afterwards.
The official Armenian readout of Mirzoyan’s call with Amir-Abdollahian made no mention of the drills. It said the Armenian minister reiterated concerns about what Yerevan has described as an Azerbaijani military buildup along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the Nagorno-Karabakh “line of contact.” He urged Iran and other international actors to “deter an escalation of the situation” there, according to the statement.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi also discussed the increased risk of fresh fighting in the conflict zone when they spoke by phone on September 9. Raisi and other Iranian officials reaffirmed Tehran’s strong opposition to any “change in the region’s geopolitics.”