Iran has 15 neighbors and the most reliable neighbor has always been Armenia, said Pouya Hosseini, founder of the Iran-Armenia Development Fund, during a press conference on Tuesday.

“We are now seeing what is happening around Iran, we [i.e. Iran] have serious problems with all our neighbors, all of them have provided military bases to Iran’s enemies and have always acted against Iran. For years, the only country that has been the most reliable [for], the friendliest [to Iran] is Armenia. It is interesting that all of these neighbors [of Iran] are from the Muslim world, the only Christian neighbor is Armenia, and we all know how they treat the historical and cultural structures of Armenians in Iran. This shows that we are two nations that have lived side by side throughout history and have had the fewest problems.

Iran-Armenia relations have no alternative, all countries interact with us for their interests, whereas Iran and Armenia are natural allies. Iran's security has always been Armenia's security, and Armenia's security is Iran's security. We have lived in an environment where we have always been threatened by our neighbors, and we have always been the ones who have supported each other, helped each other," said Hosseini.

He noted that the trade between Iran and Armenia has reached $700 million annually, which is not enough.

"There is a need to develop relations between our countries, which will bring both economic development and security. Now, in the world, in an international, global sense, there is a ‘war of corridors," an energy war, from the Middle East to the South Caucasus. Everyone is fighting for these corridors to pass through their territories and bypass enemy or competing countries. For this, the role of our two countries is very important.

We have the North-South road, we have the Persian Gulf-Black Sea project, but we do not have a railway connection, which has had a very negative impact on our countries, including for [their] geopolitical role. If that railway is built, for us it will be of strategic importance for our countries. We should be able to increase our geopolitical role through such corridors and be a bridge between Europe and Asia,” said the founder of the Iran-Armenia Development Fund.