Specialist in Iranian studies Sevak Sarukhanyan is confident Iran will not take any steps that would go against the interests of the Republic of Armenia, even though it has always openly accepted Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity following the hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Sarukhanyan, Deputy Director of ‘Noravank’ Scientific Research Foundation, believes that the only thing Iran may be worried about concerning Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the possible deployment of peacekeepers near Iran’s northern borders, which, they (Iranians) believe, may threaten the security of Iran. And as for the Iranian-Azeri relations, they may even become strained in the future because of religious controversies.

“Taking into consideration the fact that only in 2009 35 people were arrested in Azerbaijan charged with membership in extremist Islamic organizations, one may assume that stirring Shiah- Muslim organizations (directly connected with the state and religious institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran) and their active operations on its territory is not in Azerbaijan’s interests,” Sarukhanyan believes.

Azerbaijan, according to the expert, will try to hinder the development of Armenian-Iranian relations in the future, too, in case of the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, something, as Sarukhanyan believes, Iran is greatly interested in, because of opening opportunities to export oil to Turkey through Armenia, which will be much more difficult to realize via Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Turkey.

“However, western countries have a positive attitude towards this issue, and there are more favorable than hindering conditions,” Sarukhanyan says.