Armenian FM hopes Iran-Israel ceasefire will hold

Armenia hopes that the ceasefire between Iran and Israel will be consistent and all the problems will be solved through negotiations, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said in an interview to CGTN during his official visit to Beijing on June 28.

"Well, Armenia is a neighboring country, is a neighbor of Iran, and we were very much concerned and we expressed our position, we condemned the unilateral outbreak of hostilities, the attack on Iran on the very first day. By the way, our approach was very similar to the position that later was expressed by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. So not only because of our friendly relations with Iran, but also having in mind the potential threat, potential nuclear contamination," the minister said.

"Again, I'm going to emphasize that Armenia is a neighboring country. We were very much concerned and now we see that the ceasefire is established. Hopefully, the ceasefire will be consistent and then all the problems will be solved through diplomatic channels, through negotiations.

"We are interested in peace in our region. As a country that faced, experienced war in very recent history, in recent several years, we are interested in the establishment of peace not only on our borders, but also in larger regions and in the world. And in this sense, as we understand, our approaches are very close to the Chinese approaches.

"We have a peace agenda which is one of the top priorities of the Republic of Armenia. We are negotiating with Azerbaijan. We agreed upon the draft peace agreement. Now we are ready to sign and then later ratify this peace agreement. We are also trying to normalize our relations with our western neighbor, Turkey.

"So peace is what we strongly believe in. And once again, this is how we perceive the Chinese approach, Chinese policy as well. And we remember, and we are grateful for that, that China also welcomed this agreement over the draft peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan and supports the peace talks and normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"If we have a bigger look at the international relations, violation of international law, violation of territorial integrity, absence of rules in international relations are not beneficial, neither for Armenia, nor again, as we understand, for China, nor for humanity in general. So if the general aim is and overall the final goal is establishment or re-establishment or strengthening of international law, strengthening of multilateralism, then we completely share this approach," Mirzoyan remarked.