October 24, 2023 - 13:22 AMT
U.S. reacts to Tehran meeting, says Iran, Russia are not reliable partners

The United States has reacted to a five-way meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Turkey that took place in Tehran on Monday, October 23.

“With respect to the Armenia-Azerbaijan question of it, we welcome any good-faith engagements that contribute to peace and stability for the people of the South Caucasus regardless of where those talks happen or who is hosting them,” Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State Matthew Miller told a briefing on Monday.

“But that being said, we recognize the South Caucasus’ delicate geographic position regarding Iran and Russia, but we have not found these countries to be reliable partners, to understate matters.”

The leaders of Azerbaijan and Turkey, Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came up with the initiative of a six-sided format of cooperation on the unblocking of economic and transport ties in the Couth Caucasus. Russia and Iran welcomed the idea, while Georgia announced that it did not plan to participate in this regional initiative and offered its own format of negotiations between Baku and Yerevan to maintain peace in the form of a "troika". On December 10, 2021, the first meeting of the 3+3 platform at the level of deputy foreign ministers was held in Moscow. Tehran hosted the second meeting on October 23.