Iranian experts did not hide that military exercises with Armenia carried message for other forces — Aram Shahnazaryan

On April 9-10, special units of the armed forces of Armenia and Iran conducted joint exercises. These exercises focused on neutralizing hypothetical terrorist groups attacking border checkpoints located along the state border between Armenia and Iran. Alpha News discussed this topic with Aram Shahnazaryan, the editor-in-chief of the Alik daily newspaper.

“The reaction of Iranian expert circles to these exercises deserves special attention. They welcomed these exercises, since in recent years Iranian expert circles have repeatedly spoken about the need to hold such exercises, as well as about cooperation between Iran and Armenia in the domains of security and military affairs. Experts noted that this was a clear signal to both regional and extra-regional forces that seek to ignore and disregard Iran’s red lines in the region and are also trying to undermine the border zone of Iran and Armenia. This zone, by the way, is of great importance for both Armenia and Iran,” Shahnazaryan noted.

He also stressed that the primary targets of this message were Baku and Ankara.

“It was expected that both Baku and Ankara would react nervously since they were the primary targets of this message. Furthermore, these exercises carried a message for Israel and the West. After these exercises, Aliyev began to talk about problems in relations with Iran and outlined steps that Iran should take to improve its relations with Azerbaijan,” Shahnazaryan concluded.