By empty (2/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Visiting Yerevan on 23-25 February, Iranian Intelligence and Security Minister Ali Yunesi met with Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, Prime Minister Andranik Markarian, and President Robert Kocharian, RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau and Armenian media reported. Topics discussed included bilateral relations; regional conflicts, including the Karabakh conflict; and expanding economic cooperation. Armenian statements issued following Yunesi\'s talks with Oskanian and Markarian stressed the need to move ahead on construction of the planned pipeline to export Iranian natural gas to Armenia.

By empty (2/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Students walked out of a 25 February meeting at Yerevan State University with Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian to protest his refusal to amend proposed legislation that would abolish the possibility for graduate students to postpone their compulsory military service until after they have completed their course of study, RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau reported. Students launched a boycott of classes last week to protest the proposed changes. Sarkisian, however, dismissed arguments against abolishing the existing exemptions and deferments as \"just a pretext to dodge the draft.

By empty (2/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Acting Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has denounced as a \"provocation\" the arrest in Qatar of three Russian special-services employees accused of involvement in the 13 February car bombing that killed former Chechen acting President Zelimkhan Yandarbiev. Qatar\'s Interior Ministry announced on 25 February that two of the three suspects detained for questioning since 19 February have been charged with murder, but he did not identify them. \"Our country has nothing to do with the indicated incident,\" Ivanov said in a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry\'s website.