TEHRAN - Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman congratulated the people of the Republic of Armenia, and those elected in the country’s snap parliamentary vote, on holding the elections successfully, according to a statement issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

In his statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh wished success for those elected in the vote in helping Armenia on its path of development and progress while ensuring internal stability there and strengthening peace in the region.

Khatibzadeh also underlined the significance of neighboring countries in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He said Tehran regards expansion of ties with Armenia as important.

The spokesman expressed confidence that friendly ties between the two countries will deepen after the establishment of the new parliament and government in Armenia.

Armenia held snap parliamentary elections on Sunday which led to the victory of the party led by acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. According to preliminary results announced by the Central Electoral Commission on Monday, the Civil Contract Party of Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan won the early parliamentary polls with 53.92% of the votes, while Robert Kocharian’s party came second with 21.1% of the votes, Anadolu Agency reported. Armenia's former president and head of the Armenian Alliance on Tuesday announced that the party will challenge the June 20 snap election results in the country's Constitutional Court, citing “mass violations.”

Kocharyan said in a news conference in the capital Yerevan that the election results were “unexpected”, noting that the public opinion polls were showing a “different picture.”

“We must try to find an explanation. We assume that there have been mass violations, and we have obviously seen the use of administrative resources. We will apply to the Constitutional Court to challenge the results,” he said.

“We have a lot of experience in taking the struggle to the street and I think that combining it with parliamentary work will only strengthen our capabilities. Our struggle will become much stronger,” Kocharyan added.

However, Pashinyan announced that the people gave him the mandate to impose what he called a dictatorship of law by voting for his party.

“The internal political crisis, which started in Armenia on November 9, is over. Starting tomorrow, we will work as usual. And we must understand that the conditions and the [political] climate in the country have changed significantly, because the people gave us a mandate to impose a dictatorship of the law in the country,” Pashinyan said, according to Russian state news TASS.

The acting prime minister also said that the political crisis in Armenia, which sparked on November 9, 2020, is over. He also noted, that, in the past three years, the Armenian people “carried out two revolutions.”

Pashinyan faced fierce opposition from his political rivals in the wake of a devastating war with neighboring Azerbaijan, which lasted for 44 days and resulted in Armenia losing control over vast territories in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The war ended after Russian President Vladimir Putin brokered a ceasefire deal between the two warring sides in November. Pashinyan tendered his resignation from premiership nearly two weeks after the war came to an end.

SM/PA