Speaking at a weekly cabinet session on Wednesday, Rouhani said Iran has already fought terrorists in its neighboring countries to keep them away from its borders.

“Over the years, we have fought terrorists and forced them away from our borders, people like martyr Soleimani were on the ground and fought them, to kill terrorists right there and then keep them from getting close to our frontiers,” he said.

“We fought terrorists in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq with the help of their people. It is unacceptable if certain people want to take terrorists from Syria and other places to areas near the Iranian borders under different pretexts, and we have straightforwardly informed officials in both the Azerbaijan Republic and Armenia of our position in that regard,” the president stated, according to the government’s official website.

Rouhani also said every effort should be made to prevent the Azeri-Armenian conflict from growing into a regional war, and warned third parties against fueling the flames of fighting.

The president further added that Iran’s border security must be preserved amid tensions in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

He expressed regret over the ongoing war, calling for an end to the fighting.

Rouhani also underlined the need to respect Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

In a telephone conversation with his Azeri counterpart on Tuesday, Rouhani called on Baku and Yervean to avoid spreading the armed clashed in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to cities, stressing the need to protect civilians in the war.

Speaking to Tasnim on Monday, the spokesperson for the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said he has visited the Bileh-Savar border crossing in the northwestern province of Ardebil to assess the situation amid the escalation of armed clashes between the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The situation at Bileh-Savar border is normal and the travels through the land border are underway as usual, Abolfazl Amoee added.

He said a number of mortar shells fired by the warring sides in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have hit the Iranian soil and damaged a number of houses in rural areas.

On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to be careful not to violate Iran’s border amid the outbreak of the new round of fighting.

His comments came after officials in Iran’s northwestern province of East Azarbaijan reported that mortar shells fired by the warring sides in the latest round of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan have hit border rural areas in the province.

According to reports, one of the mortars has fallen in a village in Khoda Afrin county, injuring a 6-year-old child.