In an interview with Iranian state television publicized by his office late on Tuesday, Pashinian insisted that Armenia’s deepening ties with the United States and the European Union do not pose a “threat” to Iran.
“We have said that the Republic of Armenia will not be involved in any action against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he told the IRIB broadcaster, clearly alluding to a possible U.S.-led military campaign against Tehran. “Iran's stability, development and security is extremely important to us, and I don't even think there's a need to say why because it's so obvious.”
“I am happy to note that we record in our contacts [with Iran] at the highest level that there is trust between the governments of the two countries,” said Pashinian. “Trust does not mean that we look at absolutely everything in the same way, that we have the same interpretation of everything. No, trust means that we are mutually familiar with each other's thoughts in terms of our and regional relations and have a certain understanding of those thoughts.”
Earlier this year, the Armenian government signed a U.S.-Armenian document on “strategic partnership” and endorsed a bill calling for Armenia’s eventual membership in the EU. These developments highlighted the South Caucasus country’s deepening rift with Russia, its longtime ally.
Pashinian’s IRIB interviewer noted “concern that this pro-Western course will affect your relations with Iran.” The Armenian premier responded by saying that his foreign policy is “balanced,” rather than pro-Western, and that Yerevan wants to be “integrated not only with the West but also with the East.” He admitted earlier in the interview that Iran’s long-running tensions with the West have a “negative” impact on Armenian-Iranian relations.
Iranian leaders have repeatedly told their Armenian counterparts that they strongly oppose the geopolitical presence of “extra-regional countries” in the South Caucasus. Still, their public reactions to the pro-Western tilt in Armenian foreign policy have otherwise been muted.
Tehran continues to strongly support Armenia’s territorial integrity in the face of Azerbaijan’s continuing demands for an extraterritorial land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave that would pass through the sole Armenian region bordering the Islamic Republic. The Iranian ambassador in Yerevan, Mehdi Sobhani, stressed last month that “only Iran supports Armenia” in opposing such a corridor.
Pashinian told the visiting secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, in January that the two nations have common “natural interests” and that his government remains committed to deepening bilateral ties “in all directions.”