Both Azerbaijan and Armenia claim the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is largely populated by Armenians but located in Azerbaijan. (File photo)<\/p>\n
A senior Iranian lawmaker says Tehran is ready to help resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia given the Islamic Republic’s influential role in the region and the world.\n<\/p>\n
Iran has defended the Azerbaijan Republic\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s territorial integrity in all international bodies, including the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Member of Iran’s Majlis Kazem Jalali told reporters in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Friday.\n<\/p>\n
Iran will continue to defend Azerbaijan\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s territorial integrity in the future as well, said Jalali who sits on the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Majlis.\n<\/p>\n
He noted that Tehran\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s involvement in the Karabakh dispute would be subject to a request by and the approval of both sides.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cWe believe that the Karabakh dispute has a political solution and this problem should be resolved by the regional countries and neighbors close to the disputed region,\u201d the Iranian legislator added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Jalali further urged all OIC member countries to play a more active role in resolving issues facing the Muslim world, including the Karabakh dispute, and defending the rights of Muslim minorities in Islamic nations.<\/p>\n
Both Azerbaijan and Armenia claim the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is largely populated by Armenians but located in Azerbaijan.\n<\/p>\n
Ethnic Armenian forces took control of the enclave, which accounts for 16 percent of Azerbaijan\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s territory, in the early 1990s during a six-year war from February 1988 to May 1994.\n<\/p>\n
The conflict left an estimated 30,000 people dead and one million others displaced before the two sides agreed to a cease-fire in 1994. However, a peace accord has never been signed and the dispute still remains unsettled.\n<\/p>\n
Iran has on several occasions offered to mediate in the dispute.\n<\/p>\n
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