Armenian analyst on NATO and Iran

Armenian Iranist Goar Iskanderian suggests that NATO is interested in having a presence in the South Caucasus in order to resolve the Karabakh conflict but Armenia is a member of the CIS and its Collective Security Treaty, therefore NATO can only get involved in Karabakh problem regulation if Russia accepts this. Moreover, Iran is totally against extra players entering the region, as it says regional problems should be solved by regional states.

The analyst thinks that if any peacekeeping forces are deployed in the conflict zone Iran will be against these being either NATO or Collective Security Treaty forces, preferring UN peacekeepers. This would be acceptable to all UN member countries.

In a response to a statement by the NATO Secretary General that the alliance is not being included in conflict resolution issues Armenia’s President Serzh Sarkisian did not exclude NATO participation in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict. Such inclusion is possible if a military confrontation occurs, he said. He added that the Karabakh problem is discussed by the OSCE Minsk Group, which is involved not only in the resolution of the problem itself but normalising bilateral relations between the conflicting countries.

Sarkisian said that NATO is responsible for the security of Europe as a whole as Europe has no collective armed forces apart from NATO. However he made it clear that his words should not be construed as an invitation to NATO to enter the region.