Caucasus: Iran Offers To Mediate In Nagorno-Karabakh Dispute

Iran last week again said it is willing to mediate between the two Southern Caucasus states of Armenia and Azerbaijan to help them settle their long-standing conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. International mediators agree that Iran -- which first offered its mediation during the years 1992 to 1993 -- should be kept regularly informed about the peace talks. But regional experts wonder whether Tehran has enough leverage to be able to resolve the dispute. Speaking last week (20 July) in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, a high-ranking Iranian official said his country was ready to help settle the 13-year-old territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Since 1988, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has killed more than 30,000 people and driven at least 800,000 Azerbaijani civilians from their homes. The Iranian official, Hassan Rowhani, who is the secretary of Tehran's Supreme National Security Council, was quoted on 21 July by a Baku newspaper -- the Russian-language "Bakinskii Rabochii," or "Baku Worker" -- as saying that if both sides agree to Iran's mediation, Tehran would do "everything it can."