Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday following the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and other officials who died in a helicopter crash over the weekend.
Pashinyan was one of several foreign dignitaries at the funeral ceremony in Tehran, where no Western leaders were present.
Khamenei led the ceremony, delivering a traditional “death prayer” for the deceased officials as the crowd reached out to touch the coffins.
During separate meetings with Khamenei and Iran’s acting president, First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, Pashinyan remembered his “warm and friendly” rapport with Raisi and described his death as a “tragedy.”
According to a statement from the Armenian government, Pashinyan and Khamenei expressed confidence in the continued deepening of Armenia-Iran bilateral ties. Iranian news agencies quoted Khamenei as saying Iran would keep “expanding relations with Armenia” under Mokhber’s “guidance.”
“Our late president was very sensitive to the border issues related to Armenia, and these sensitivities and cares should still be taken into account,” Khamenei said, alluding to Tehran’s regular warnings against potential Azerbaijani attempts to alter the border or transport links with Armenia.
Iranian leaders have also voiced concern over the Pashinyan government’s efforts to pivot Armenia towards the West, amid deteriorating relations with Russia, its traditional ally. Raisi had stressed “the non-interference of outsiders in regional affairs” during a meeting with Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian in March.
Echoing these sentiments, Khamenei told Pashinyan, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency, that Tehran and Yerevan “must be able to secure our interests on our own.”
Mokhber assured Pashinyan that Tehran remains committed to “all the plans for the development of Armenia-Iran relations mapped out by the Armenian prime minister with Ebrahim Raisi.”
Meanwhile, Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonyan mentioned that Raisi was scheduled to visit Armenia soon. “That was very important for us,” Simonian said after visiting the Iranian Embassy in Yerevan to sign a book of condolences.
The Russian state news agency TASS reported that Raisi’s visit to Armenia had been planned for Sunday but was postponed at the last moment, according to an unnamed source. The Armenian government did not confirm or deny the report.
Raisi had traveled on Sunday to the Azerbaijani-Iranian border to inaugurate a dam on the Arax river with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. The helicopter carrying Raisi, Amir-Abdollahian, and other officials crashed in a mountainous forest in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province upon returning from the ceremony.
Aliyev did not attend Wednesday’s funeral in Tehran, sending his prime minister and foreign minister instead.
