Iranian troops may replace Russia’s in Armenia – politician

Chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia Aram Sargsyan has said that Iranian troops may replace Russia’s in Armenia.

"Iran realizes that Russia will leave Armenia. Iran understands this and sees it. Iran says that since Russia, which ensures territorial integrity and a transit route through Armenia, does not ensure that, you need to address the security problem, and we can solve that problem. And, if Armenia wants, Iran can move its troops there and deploy them to ensure that security. I have heard these talks not from random people, and I believe there is such kind of issue," the politician said in an interview with Armenian media, Caliber.Az reports.

"What should we to do in relations with Russia? We need to make more concrete steps toward the West. I talked about these steps. First, we should withdraw from the CSTO, second, we should withdraw from the CIS, third, we should break the military agreement with Russia. Fourth, we should withdraw from the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), because it is an economic agreement with ties in a certain direction, and these ties are in favor of Russia.

Russia is not severing these ties, because at the moment they depend on Armenia. By doing this, we will get the maximum in this situation, but let us involve Western investment in Armenia during this process, whether it is in the energy sector or in other areas, which is being done at the moment, which I will not hide. Of course, I am not satisfied, of course, these works are carried out too slowly. However, for example, work is underway on the same nuclear power plant. There are direct negotiations with the US about capsule nuclear power plants, a group from Armenia traveled and studied them. I cannot say everything openly and it will probably be wrong to say it openly, but the process in this direction is underway," Sargsyan noted.