Active Iranian foreign diplomacy could guarantee a significant breakthrough in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement - Mohsen Rezaei

"Iranian foreign policy in the region must be strengthened. If so it could ward off regional disputes and ongoing wrangling," the Iranian presidential hopeful said in a campaign speech on Saturday in Tabriz -- the provincial capital city of Iran's East Azarbaijan province.

He said given Iran's historical sphere of influence and current capabilities, it should have been able to prevent the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the resultant Armenian occupation of the small ethnic enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7 districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Rezaei said that if elected president, he will promote a diplomacy rooted in peace and amicability vis-à-vis regional crises and seek to bridge divisions among regional states so that they will pin their hopes on Tehran as a mediator rather than Washington.

/Trend News/