According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the diplomat, Grigor Hakobian, made this clear after handing his credentials to Pezeshkian.
“Ambassador Hakobian reaffirmed the readiness of the Armenian government to deepen relations with friendly Iran in all directions,” the ministry said in a statement. “The interlocutors touched upon the current agenda of Armenia-Iran relations and emphasized the importance of further development and deepening of cooperation based on mutual respect and trust.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian made similar comments during his talks with Pezeshkian held in October in the Russian city of Kazan on the sidelines of a summit of the BRICS group of major emerging economies. Pezeshkian’s office quoted Pashinian as saying that “Armenia will continue to expand its good relations with Iran under any circumstances.”
The official readouts of those talks did not say whether the two leaders discussed Azerbaijan’s continuing demands for an extraterritorial land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave that would pass through Armenia’s Syunik region bordering Iran. Tehran is strongly opposed to the so-called “Zangezur corridor,” fearing a de facto loss of its common border with Armenia.
In October 2023, the Armenian government contracted two Iranian companies to upgrade a 32-kilometer section of Syunik’s main highway leading to the Iranian border. Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrzad Bazrpash attended the signing of the $215 million contract in Yerevan, underscoring its geopolitical significance for the Islamic Republic.
According to Armenian government data, Armenia’s trade with Iran rose by about 5 percent to $593 million in January-October 2024.