Iskanders in war and Amulsar gold mine: Armenia PM's interview in a nutshell

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gave an interview to 1in.am on Tuesday, February 23 and weighed in on a variety of matters from the recent 44-day war to the coronavirus pandemic. Below are some of the more interesting points he made.

– As long as we see that the chances of settling the issue [of the repatriation of the prisoners of war] are real – and so far 69 captives have been returned – we must continue to work until they are all back.

– Receiving a rejection from the parliamentary opposition and the opposition in general, we decided to go back to the implementation of the roadmap of November 18.

– There have been no changes to the weapons and equipment purchase plan.

– Political and diplomatic steps are being taken when acquiring [quality military] equipment, which may not be unequivocally accepted by allies and friends.

– Maybe they should answer why the "Iskander" missile did not explode, or exploded, for instance, by 10%. Maybe the weapon was from the 1980s? (Pashinyan's response to criticism from former authorities who purchased the systems in 2015 - Ed.)

– What prevented [former President] Serzh Sargsyan from implementing Lavrov's plan before 2018?

– I think our government has best managed the coronavirus epidemic.

– There is a big probability of [opening the Amulsar gold mine].