Iran's Ahmadinejad boosts links with neighbour Armenia

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a visit to Armenia on Friday that saw the Islamic republic and its small Christian neighbour sign a series of agreements to boost ties.A joint statement by Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian said that the two politically isolated countries planned to step up cooperation."The presidents expressed their determination to develop a friendly and mutually beneficial bilateral relationship," said the statement issued by Sarkisians office.Ex-Soviet Armenia has been seeking to increase links with Iran because it is suffering from long-term political disputes with two of its other neighbours, Turkey and Azerbaijan, which have led to an economic blockade and closed borders.The two states have found further common ground because Iran also has an tense relationship with Armenias enemy Azerbaijan, which fought a war with Yerevan in the 1990s over the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh.Tehrans relationship with Baku is complicated by its huge ethnic Azerbaijani minority and Azerbaijans close diplomatic and economic links with the United States.Ahmadinejad and Sarkisians statement also noted Yerevans support for Tehran in the row over its controversial nuclear programme which the West suspects of being an attempt to build atomic weapons but Iran says is for peaceful energy generation."(The two presidents) noted the right of all countries, including Armenia and Iran, to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," the statement said.The relationship between Tehran and Yerevan is developing because both states are isolated by political disputes, said Sergey Minasian, an analyst at the Caucasus Media Institute.
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