Probably, within this or the next year, Armenia will manage to establish diplomatic relations with the largest Arab country in the Persian Gulf: Saudi Arabia. Armenian Ambassador to Tunisia and Morocco and former Armenian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Arshak Poladian, stated this Monday at an international conference in Yerevan—and devoted to the Arab countries and Armenian communities of the Persian Gulf.

He recalled that by the 2000s, Armenia established diplomatic relations with all the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, except for Saudi Arabia—and in connection with the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) issue. According to him, today, however, there are positive signals from Saudi Arabia.

"Ever since Armenia's achievement of independence [in 1991], the [Persian Gulf] region has been and is of great importance for Yerevan. It was then that the process of establishing diplomatic relations with the countries of the region began. Armenia intended to establish the first such relations with Oman in 1992, but, unfortunately, that process was stopped after the events of Karvachar [(Kelbajar) district of Nagorno-Karabakh]," the Armenian diplomat emphasized.

The ambassador explained that Azerbaijan, under the leadership of Turkey, had raised a great hysteria in the Arab world, and this impacted the process of Armenia establishing diplomatic relations with the countries of the region.

"It was necessary to carry out serious work. As a result of, in 1994, it became possible to ‘melt’ that ‘ice’ and establish diplomatic relations with Yemen and Kuwait, and later—with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain," Arshak Poladian concluded.