May 1, 2003	Thursday	Safar 28, 1424

YEREVAN, April 30: Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi on Wednesday proposed a regional security system grouping Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia with their neighbors Iran, Russia and Turkey.

“We must establish a regional security system and deepen the trust in the region,” Kharazi told a press conference during a visit to Armenia, the last stop on a tour of the Caucasus that has also taken him to Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said he supported the plan.

“We must have a security system with which we will be able to take care of existing conflicts ourselves, and so that no country goes off to take care of its security alone,” Oskanian said.

Kharazi appealed to Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve remaining tensions over their war in the early 1990s.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave whose mainly Armenian population wanted to secede from Azeri rule, before a ceasefire was signed in 1994. —AFP