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“Major steps have been taken aimed at activating the Iranian-Armenia relations, resulted in certain benefits,” expert in Iran Vardan Voskanyan told a press conference on Tuesday, adding the time has come to recap the results and set new programs.
 
“The results are mainly on the economic domain, since the political relations between the states appear to be at the highest level possible,” Voskanyan said.

The expert indicated to the energy and gas spheres among the directions in the economic sector. “After lifting of the sanctions, Iran expressed readiness the to construct the third energy transfer line. New perspectives are coming in the gas sphere. Armenia has established a state company to deal with the gas transit from Iran to a third country – Georgia,” Voskanyan noted.

The expert also referred to the abolishment of the visa regime between the states, seeing that as having a positive impact on the tourism growth.
 
“Iran views Armenia as a route to the north, yet the main problem here is the bad conditions of the domestic infrastructure in Armenia. Consequently, the construction works of the North-South highway should be accelerated. Considering the ongoing instability in Eastern Turkey, Armenia could serve as route for Iranian cargo transportation,” suggested the expert.

Through deepening relations with both Iran and Georgia, Armenia will break the Azerbaijani-Turkish blockade, according to the speaker.  

“Iranian-Armenian cultural relations should be paid special attention. The Iranians freely marked Ashura this year in Armenia which is another indication of Armenia’s positioning as a tolerant state. Every pro-Armenian resident of the Islamic Republic is important for us in terms of conducting a pro-Armenian activity. Furthermore, we have the opportunity to boost our relations further in the education and culture,” Voskanyan said.

The expert expects the Iranian President to visit Armenia by the end of the year. “Judging from the Iranian media reports and messages, the visit will be conducted by the New Year, most probably in late December,” Voskanyan said.