Iran Press/ Iran news: Brigadier General Ali Hajiloo said on Friday that Army defended the country's borders against any aggression and stressed that the security of the people living in the border areas is of Army's priorities.
Referring to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over the Karabakh region, Gen. Hajiloo said that the ground force in the northwest has a mission to prevent any possible threats and insecurity.
Relations between the two former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.
About 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory has remained under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.
In late September, Azerbaijan declared a state of war in some of its cities and regions following Armenian forces' attacks on military and civilian sites.
Since the beginning of the new round of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, dozens of mortar shells have hit Iranian territory in the city of Khodaafarin.
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