Iran warns Armenia, Azerbaijan over mortar shells

Aliyar Rastgoo who serves as the deputy for East Azarbaijan governor-general in political and security issues told IRNA that the province’s highest authority has also sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pursue the issue through diplomatic channels.

Meanwhile, he added, the Iranian military is present in the region and is closely minoring the situation.

Also, earlier on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh warned the warring parties fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region against any violation of Iran’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

Iran meticulously monitors all the movements at the borderlines with the two parties engaged in the dispute, said Khatibzadeh when responding to a question about the reports on Iran’s territory being violated. Khatibzadeh said that any violation of the Iranian territory is intolerable.He stressed the need for both clashing parties to stop the conflicts and start serious time-bound talks. The spokesperson also expressed Iran’s readiness to help the two parties pursue these goals. In the conflict that has been going on between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the past few days, a number of rockets and missiles hit the Iranian villages close to the joint borderlines which injured a number of people including a five-year-old child.The shells also damaged two buildings. Due to a mortar that hit the power network of the borderline town of Khodafarin County in the northwest of Iran, the area suffered a blackout for a while. The dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan was originally erupted over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh and changed into a six-year war (1988-1994).