No need for foreign assistance in South Caucasus, says Iran's president Ahmadinejad

The peoples of the South Caucasus can resolve their own problems without foreign countries' interference, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said at a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan this week, the ISNA news agency reported.

"There are no problems that regional countries will fail to resolve themselves without foreign countries interfering in their internal affairs," he said.

Mr Ahmadinejad also stressed the need to establish long-term stability in the region.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over of Nagorno Karabakh started in 1988 when the Azerbaijani side began pogroms against the Armenians in Sumgait, Baku and Nagorno Karabakh as part of its long-standing and carefully-planned program to orchestrate the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population.

Currently peace talks over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement are spearheaded by the co-chair states of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the United States.