azerbaijan, armenia, the two countries have been involved in bloody violence for more than three decades. the last major escalation and the conflict between the two neighboring countries took place in 2020 when thousands of people were killed within a few weeks of bitter fighting. russian peacekeepers brought the fighting to a halt. but tensions began to grow again. now tens of thousands of ethnic armenians have fled from nagorno-karabakh since the territory surrender to azerbaijan on 20th september. but how can the of developments in this region, commonly known as the south caucasus affect the islamic republic of iran? how about tehran's red line? and what stance has iran adopted in this regard? this and more. on this edition

of iran today. as the soviet union. collapsing, nagorno-karabakh declared its independence with the intention of reunifying with armenia. a war ensued after the controversial declaration, tens of thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced. a ceasefire in 1994 left armenia in control of the territory. a second war erupted in 2020, which claimed thousands of lives and displaced tens of thousands of people. this time. azerbaijan recaptured much

of the territory and its surroundings. the return of nagorno-karabakh to azerbaijani control is likely to change the power dynamics in the south caucasus, a region that for centuries has been at the crossroad of geopolitical interests of russia, turkey, iran as well as western nations. years of geopolitical rivalry accounts for the dispute between the two former soviet. republics over nagorno-karabakh. the region lies within azerbaijan's internationally recognized borders and has been home to tens of thousands of ethnic armenians. armenian separatist surrender could trigger instability in armenia where prime minister nicole pashinyan has sought to build closer ties with the west despite a military alliance with russia. to know more about the developments in the south caucasus, we talked to dr. ehsan movahedian of...

real integrity, they are focused on undermining the influence of russia in armenia, they have such a plan and the peshinan government should know that, it is making a big mistake, and iran are the neighbors of armenia, and we have common interests with it, neglecting these common interests and seeking help from american fronts, which do not care about preserving armenia's territorial integrity, will only harm this country. on the other hand, baku has been seaking to cement its military gains through blocking overland. اولویت جمهوری

of آذربایجان آزادی بررباغ, today the priority of azerbaijan is the liberation of karabakh, that's why it has blocked the lotching crossing that connects armenia to karabak, that's because armenia sends weapons to the separatists. of nagorno-karabakh. the islamic republic of iran considers lachin and nagorno-karabakh to be part of azerbaijan, but at the same time, iran is interested in preserving the rights of the armenians in nagorno-karabakh, is interested in preventing a humanitarian disaster in this region. iran wants the nagorno-karabakh problem to be resolved peacefully through negotiations between armenia and azerbaijan. in other words, the islamic republic says that the'.

territorial integrity of these two countries should be maintained, the international borders should not change, and the rights of the armenians should be protected. in this of framework, iran is negotiating. with both countries, we've asked the republic of azerbaijan to be lenient towards the armenians of nagorno-karabakh, are citizens of this country, and we have also asked armenia to recognize the territorial integrity of azerbaijan. nagorno-karabakh has been the stage for various regional and international players, prominent among them, russia, turkey, the united states and some european countries. russia has long played a central role in the dispute, but the ukraine war has adversely affected this role, especially following baku's victory in september. turkey, which sides with azerbaijan has been pursuing assertive

foreign policy in the region. the united states has long sought influence in the south caucas and other states in the former soviet block. that's while the european union is mostly interested. in azerbaijan as an energy partner that can make up at least partly for the loss of russian imports, but what about iran. as a neighbor, iran has always done its best to solve the conflict between azerbaijan and armenia over nagorno-karabakh. in 1991, after the collapse of the former soviet union, 15 soviet republics including azerbaijan and armenia, broke away, but both new. fully established states had border claims over the nagorno-karabakh region. iran has tended to resolve the nagorno-karabakh conflict peacefully. over the past decades the iranian governments have tried to play the role of mediator in the karabak conflict, most notably in the 1990s. this is mr. daryu

safarnejad, an iranian expert in eurosian issues and international relations. mr. safarneja told us that iran opposes. every year in december, in the un general assembly, there have been two votes on nagorno-karabakh, one that the un security council authorizes the organization for security and cooperation, europe to mediate the peace in karabakh, the other one is the resolution that bakuu proposes every year that karabag is in the territorial framework of azerbaijan in the last 30 years, the islamic republic has officially given two votes in favor of azerbaijan every year, that is, we have given 60 votes only in the united nations. we've voted the same in the organization of islamic cooperation, in the non-alignment movement and other forums as

well. our official vote is that karabagh is part of the land of azerbaijan. in october 1993 during the war, the then president of iran akbar hashemi rafsanjani traveled to baku and had frequent private meetings with the then azer president haydar aliyev. the rafsanjani administration arranged host of bilateral and trilateral meetings with azari and armenian sides to hammer out a peace plan to end military confrontation between baku and yearwan in the 1990s. in its official statements iranian governments have always called for peaceful settlement and restraint during skirmishes. at the same time, the officials have repeatedly reaffirmed their support for azerbaijan's territorial integrity. tehran's decision came after the united nations general assembly adopted a resolution which reaffirmed azerbaijan's territorial integrity on march 14th 2008. the

resolution expressed support for baku's internationally recognized borders and demanded the immediate withdrawal of all armenia. to the dispute has the right to monitor the situation and to be aware of the progress of the affairs. after all, we've been present in syria for 13 years to prevent takfies and daesh from being present in our neighborhood, but today we see that with the leadership of

nato, tagfity salafy forces have been brought in the region for three years. they've settled in the south of the south caucasus dressing the uniforms of the azerbaijan i army. we see that extra-original actors have come to the region such as the israeli regime and for years it is sent a large amount of weapons to the region and exchange for the oil that the regime buys from

iran like the european countries believes that the territorial integrity of armenia should be preserved, although the europeans do not have acceptable record in the support the rights and security of the armenians of karabakh, but for this purpose iran has its consult in the province of sionic and in the city of kapan. european countries like france are now following suit and this shows that iran's approach has been correct. welcome to the news section of the program

where we take a look at some news exerps from different news websites. un mission arrives in nagorno-karabakh for the first time in 30 years. according to euro news, the move comes as more than 100,000 people have fled the nagorno-karabakh region, equivalent to almost the entire population of the ethnic armenian enclave since azerbaijan seezed the region last. azerbaijan is hungry for land. armenians fear country will seek to grab more territory. the guardian writes, the locals believe after baku's success in nagorno-karabakh, it could attempt to encroach farther. france will open consult in armenia's stunic provides 7 million euros for nagorno-karabakh. public radio of armenia rights, france will open a consular office in armenia's southern province of stunic and had additional aid of 7 million euro to armenia and nagorno-karabakh, foreign minister

katherine colona said during a q&a session in the parliament. this brings us to the end of this section. please stay tuned as we go back to our main narrative. for the islamic republic of iran, the so-called zangazure corridor, situated on the border of armenia and azerbaijan has huge strategic importance. the zangezu carter, also called the nahchivan, sunik or megri carter, is a proposed transport carder that passes through armenia sunik province, linking the republic of azerbaijan and the nachchivan autonomous republic. the corridor was conceptualized pass through the valley of the aras river in the extreme south of armenia, along the border with iran. and to the west, it would continue to turkey which has a short border with nahchivan. to get more information about

the significance, we talk to dr. ahmad kazemi, an expert on the caucasus region. dr. kazimi is also director of the applied researchers department at irib. armenstan as a province of armenia on the province bordering iran. sionic is considered a geographical gap between the mainland of azerbaijan, nachchivan. and turkey from the time when auditor called nachchivan as part the so-called turkishward, they believe that sionic province has divided the turkishward into two parts, just like dagger. now turkey seeks to create ethnic corridor based on the idea of panturkism or panturanism. it founds to be connected through its own land to azerbaijan, the caspiancy and central asia through this corridor. therefore sionic is considered as the most important obstacle in the formation of the so-called turkishward which can pose many threats. to the origin and the world, including europe, they are after seonic and if they cannot take it through persuasion, they might take it by

force, which is in the violation of un charter, they might occupy and form the so-called nato's longestger corridor, currently cionic province is in the frontline of preventing a geopolitical tradition pursued by ankara's new automanism doctrine. since armenia and azerbaijan maintain a mutual traffic blockage due to long-running tensions, baku's connection. with nahchivan for decades has been iran and the connection with turkey has been georgia. the two countries have different views on the concept the corridor, its definition, the existence of control point. and the nationality of the guards who would control those points. for instance has been asking for an unimpeded passage without checkpoints and yaravon refused to do so, it threatened to implement the planned plan unaterally, meaning through military intervention and occupation of southern armenia, which iran strongly opposes. as for the developments in theus

region, the position of islamic republic of iran is fixed clear position. iran supports the territorial integrity of the caucasus countries and against the change of international borders and wants the rights of minorities, including the armenians of karapak to be secured. the developments that are taking place in the caucasus today are due to the rumors that the republic of azerbaijan is seeking to seize armenia's suonic province. following this, tehron took a strong position and announced that it is against the change of international. borders and if this happens, azerbaijan has assured iran that it is not seeking to block the international borders or change the geographical borders, and during the visit of the iranian minister of foreign affairs, amir abdullahyanan to baku, mr. elham aliev said, i don't even think about this. the islamic republic of iran welcomes the interconnection

of transport routes in the caucasus and the wider region, without excluding any of its big or small. neighbors, but strongly opposes changes in the status quo. iran's position on the inviolability of existing borders is nothing new, but part of the official principled approach already seen in a number of other cases in the region, including egypt, iraq, kuwait, lebanon, oman, qatar, palestine, syria, turkey and yemen. this position did not change regardless the different s of bilateral relations with the mentioned countries. for the same reasons, iran today maintains good relations with, but recognizes the territorial integrity of georgia and ukraine. azerbaijan is no exception because tehran's unchanging position is that nagorno-karabakh is part of azerbaijan, which was welcomed and praised by azerbaijan's president alief. the idea that

attempts to change borders continue in the south caucasus is. acceptable to tehran as it would fan the flames of revanches politics, excessive arming and feels new conflicts. moreover, in the case of another war, iran's transportation links with both countries will be cut off and tens of thousands of refugees may fut iran, as was already the case in the first war between azerbaijan and armenia. to tehran, this is another cause for concern. iran has always advocated the peaceful reintegration of negorno-karabakh into other. tensions or arming any of the two opposing sides. در 26 سال مذاکرات. in the 26 years of peace negotiations including the lisman summit in 1996, the issue of autonomy of karabat was raised and at that time azerbaijan accepted it. now the question is

what happened to the rights and security of the armenians? it is clear that after nine months of the origin and the closure of corridor, the only corridor of karabak to armenia and the outside world, and the force starvation of the armenians of karabakh by azerbaijan, and after that the start large scale military attack, which has been dopped as the operation against terrorists. this situation has caused the armenians to leave the origin because they consider azerbaijan as a government that hates them. the cooperation with both countries is focus on the construction of factories, dams, roads and other infrastructure as well. inclusion international route to connect with the world. in march last year, iran and azerbaijan signed memorandum of understanding on further development of the existing iranian carter to nahchivan as an alternative to the carter through armenian territory. another feature of iran's approach in the region is the resolution of disputes through

the 3+3 format, that is three small countries, armenia, azerbaijan and georgia and three larger countries. iran, russia and turkey without the involvement of foreign powers. look at the actors present in the region. we must examine them well. iran is actor that has always saw peace, stability and security in the region. what iran has proposed to solve the disputes in the region is the 3+3 framework with the presence of all the countries of the region as well as their neighbors. on the other hand, turkey only supports azerbaijan. the turks are seeking to create the so-called zangazor corridor. they are supposed to do this by occupying the country's territory, so turkey is not playing a constructive role in the region. another actor is georgia, which is not an act actor, perhaps russia is more important actor in the region, and the problem with it is that russia is heavyly involved in the ukraine war. moreover, iran is all aware of the

decades long british and american plans of merging their sphere of interest across the caucases into central asia, which includes the forcible subjugation of all three smaller regional countries and the isolation of eran and russia. in relation to the rest of the actors in the region, americans and europeans are generally not interested in ending this conflict, the reason is that they want russia to be isolated in the caucasus, and if this conflict comes to an end, there will be no reason for them to be present in the caucasus region. a joint military exercise was recently held by the united states and armenia, which we strongly opposed, because iran believes that forces outside the region should not be present in the caucasus. the israeli regime is also against peace in the caucasus because it is currently selling weapons to azerbaijan as tensions are

ratcheting up. as tensions escalate again between azerbaijan and armenia over the disputed territories. iranian officials have issued multiple warnings that they will not allow any border changes in the caucases. on september 3rd after a meeting. with his turkish counterpart hakan fidan, iranian foreign minister hossain amir abdullahyan reiterated tehran's position that it will not tolerate any geopolitical changes in the caucasus region, including the change in borders. six days later after a phone conversation with armenian prime minister nichol pashinyan, iranian president ibrahim raisi said, tehran is ready to play an effective role in preventing new clashes and any change of historical borders in the disputed region. in a meeting between iranian leader and turkish president rajab tayib erdogan, on july 19th 2022, ayatullah

khamenei made it clear that iran would never tolerate any alteration in the border line with armenia. the islamic republic of iran has staged several war games in the northwestern tip of the border with armenia and azerbaijan ever since to show that the red lines should never be trespassed. revolution clearly declared that karabak belongs to azerbaijan, so they took karabak back and now it is under their rule. another point as the leadership announced is that the armenians leaves property and security should be protected. now almost all of the 120,000 people in that region have completely fled the area. tehran's next red line is that. wahabi and takfury forces should not be around iran's border, which is not happened yet, but in any case if karabak is completely under their control, and then they want to

come to sionic, iran will react appropriately. another red line is that the border between iran and armenia should not be cut off, and according to the leadership, this thousand year old communication route should remain open, which is why iran has given the necessary warnings to azerbaijan and turkey through. diplomatic channels, the islamic republic has said many times that if the armenian government is not serious about protecting iran's border, the country is fully prepared to rely its own military force to protect the border. that's all for today. thank you for watching from the whole team. i hope you found this edition informative and valuable. please do tune in, same time next week and each week after. don't forget to leave us your comments and topic requests. till next time, take care. as predicted, ryad

under pressure from washington may accept flimsy zionist american promises, so that the wagon will set afterwards what netanyahu called the new middle east, that zionists like diseas shimon perez had always dreamed of. there is no arab world nor a palestinian cause in the map. netanyahu heralds, rather, there is a regional power, solely zionist israel, supported by the united states of america, that plunders from arabs oil money to establish its superiority. alas, everything is now out in the open, normalizing relations between saudi arabia and the israeli entity will lead to the palestinians losing a friend who was only ashamed to deal with the zionists in public, and now has the chance to do it openly. saudi arabia embraces zionists this week on the mediast stream.

your headlines for this hour, iran's leader ayatollah harmani warns against any attempts by regional countries to normalize relations with israel.