ArmInfo. Armenia opposes the sale of Israeli weapons to Azerbaijan, but does not put this as a precondition for improving relations with Jerusalem. The Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Grigor Hovhannisyan stated this in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
According to him, Armenia is considering the possibility of opening an embassy in Israel in order to bring ties between the two countries to the "next level". However, according to the deputy minister, Yerevan is not considering the issue of opening a diplomatic mission in Jerusalem. "I wouldn't concentrate on that. The main thing is that the relationship is established," he said. At the same time, the diplomat noted the desire of the Armenian side to see the mirror steps from Israel, opening the embassy in Yerevan. Today, Armenia and Israel are represented in the country of each other by non-resident ambassadors.Touching on the information that Israel is the main supplier of weapons to Azerbaijan, Grigor Hovhannisyan said that Armenia would welcome Israel if it follows the example of the United States and many European countries - that is, it does not sell weapons to either Baku or Yerevan. The deputy minister stressed that there is no military solution to the Karabakh conflict, only political, but the sale of weapons to Azerbaijan leads to an arms race.
As the representative of the Armenian Foreign Ministry pointed out, Armenia wants to convey to its partners that the sale of arms to Azerbaijan goes beyond the usual logic of such transactions, and is fraught with consequences. At the same time, as the diplomat noted, Armenia "does not exclude the possibility of cooperation with the defense sector of Israel."Grigor Hovhannisyan also touched upon the Armenian Genocide. The diplomat who served in Israel in 2000 in the team of the UN mediator in the Middle East, said that although Armenia would welcome recognition of the historical fact that the Armenian people had to endure, this is not a precondition for developing closer ties with Israel. "We know that geopolitical aspirations often interfere with moral ones. And we also sometimes have to deal with this," said Hovhannisyan.
When asked if he was disappointed that Israel did not recognize the Armenian Genocide, he made a distinction between his personal opinion and the opinion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a descendant of refugees who survived the genocide, Hovhannisyan said he was personally disappointed, although this is not the position of the foreign ministry or the government. He added that many countries, including the United States, which are a close partner of Armenia, did not recognize the Genocide. At the same time, he noted that for more than 25 years of independence of Armenia, the pace of recognition was impressive when thousands of regional governments and about 40 countries recognized the Genocide. Hovhannisyan also touched upon the mutual interests of the two countries, noting that Armenia is a member of the EAEU and for Israeli products can become a gateway for entering a huge market.