Armenia can benefit from regional conflicts, particularly, from the discrepancies among Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan, Vardan Voskanyan, expert on Iranian Studies, said at a press conference in Yerevan on January 12.
At the same time, the expert thinks that at the moment the interests of Armenia and Iran coincide in the region and that any physical threat to Iran's security will directly affect
the security system of Armenia, which curbs the Azerbaijani aggression and seriously hinders Azerbaijan's ambitions to become a regional leader. "If Tehran becomes the leader, Yerevan will be able to get both economic and political benefits," he said. In this context, he stressed the need to speed up Yerevan's efforts towards implementation of a number of economic projects with Iran. "Tehran demonstrates its desire to cooperate with Yerevan, and this is proved by the visits of high-ranking officials, friendly statements, etc. So, Yerevan should take advantage of this situation and specify the issue of the railway funding," Voskanyan said.
"We should be able to implement the project on the Iranian gas transit to Georgia via the territory of Armenia. In addition, Armenia can become a corridor linking the Russian and Iranian power grids," he said. The expert emphasizes the need to develop the infrastructures in Armenia, particularly, to complete the construction of the North-South highway, which can become an alternative for transit motor transportation that Iran carries out via Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Earlier, Head of the National Iranian Gas Exports Co Ali-Reza Kameli said that Iran is negotiating on gas supply to Georgia via Armenia. The supply may total 300-500 mln cubic feet daily. The main consumers will be the electric power plants in Georgia. Georgian Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze said that Tbilisi wants to change the previous agreements with Gazprom and to receive money for the transit of Russian gas to Armenia via its territory instead of the 10% of the gas transit.