Egypt is Armenia’s reliable partner in relations with the Islamic world, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced in Cairo, who visited Egypt on March 5 and met with the country’s president. On the one hand, Egypt is certainly one of the important links for Armenia in terms of effective and stable relations with the Islamic world. On the other hand, Nikol Pashshinyan makes that record during a rather remarkable period. A meeting of foreign ministers of Armenia and Egypt also took place in Egypt. It probably happened before the departure of the Egyptian foreign minister to Jeddah.
In the Saudi city, which is the headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers of the member countries of the organization will be held to discuss the situation in Gaza. As is known, the situation in Gaza is not only complicated, but also has a high risk of a new wave of tension, if Israel sticks to its statement and starts a military operation against the town of Raffat on the border with Egypt. Most of the population displaced from the north of Gaza is concentrated in that city, according to various sources, two-thirds of Gaza’s population is currently in Raffat.
Weeks ago, the Israeli press, referring to diplomatic sources, wrote that Egypt warned that if military operations begin on the border, then Cairo may completely suspend the operation of the peace treaty with Israel. There is no doubt that the extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will discuss the most important issues for the region. Against this background, it is worth noting that, among the bilateral meetings ahead of the meeting of foreign ministers, a meeting of foreign ministers of Iran and Azerbaijan took place yesterday. According to the Iranian IRNA Agency, the Foreign Minister of Iran stated that Azerbaijan has an important place in the framework of Iran’s neighborhood policy.
Abdolahian announced that a new page of cooperation between the two countries and peoples is opening. He also expressed his willingness to host the session of the bilateral intergovernmental commission in Tehran. According to everything, against the background of the warming of the events in the Middle East and the increasing tension, Iran seeks such a dialogue with Azerbaijan, which will maximally protect Tehran from the risks of destabilization near the northern borders, from strategic challenges. Israel, for which close cooperation with Azerbaijan has always been considered a means of creating a serious challenge for Iran by regional destabilization at the very moment of need, can undoubtedly now consider the possibility and necessity of implementing this measure.
All the more so, in a broad sense, Tel Aviv may have other supporters in this matter. In that sense, it is possible to assume that the extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers to be held in Jeddah for Iran is also important from the point of view of obtaining assurances regarding the Caucasus, which is undoubtedly an important circumstance for Armenia as well. Apparently, Pashinyan’s statement proves that Yerevan expects Egypt to support that agenda in Jeddah.
