Abbas Araqchi, the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic, announced that in a meeting with Ararat Mirzoyan, Armenia’s foreign minister, he discussed bilateral relations and developments in the Caucasus and West Asia.

Araqchi also said that he placed Armenia’s foreign minister “in the course of developments in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.”

In the course of the talks, the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic described the United States and Israel as the “main causes of insecurity” for commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

He also said: “The Islamic Republic has decisively defended, and will defend, its national interests and security, and at the same time has never paused in using the tools of diplomacy to prevent tensions from escalating.”