Iran hosts Armenia-Azerbaijan talks amid Middle East tensions

(Patria) - The foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey and Russia will meet on Monday in Tehran with their counterparts from Azerbaijan and Armenia to discuss progress toward a peace agreement between the two South Caucasus neighbors, Iranian and Russian state media reported, Reuters reports.

The first meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan after
September's lightning offensive by Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh will also take place amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

The IRNA news agency quoted the foreign ministry as saying that these countries want to discuss regional issues "without the interference of non-regional and Western countries."

This was an implicit reference to the United States and the European Union, whose
involvement in the search for a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan has particularly irritated Moscow.

The Russian news agency Interfax reported that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will travel to Tehran for the meeting.

The so-called 3+3 South Caucasus platform, which first held talks in 2021,
was also supposed to include Georgia, but Georgia previously stated that it does not plan to participate in the initiative and said on Sunday that it will not come to Tehran.