LONDON, United Kingdom - The Ground Forces of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) kicked off joint military drills with Armenia on Thursday in what has been described as an exercise to boost regional security.

The drills are being held on the Iranian side of the border—Nordouz—in the northeastern province of East Azarbaijan.

"The Iran-Armenia border areas are facing no threats," said Brig. Gen. Valiollah Ma'adani, the Operations Deputy Commander of the IRGC Ground Forces, in an interview with the state television from the drill site. He added that the two-day drills—dubbed "Peace"—have been designed to bolster preparedness against "terrorism" and strengthen stability along the shared border.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are among Iran's northern neighbors. Amid the territorial tensions between the two in recent years, Tehran has largely managed to maintain close ties with both, attempting in public diplomatic settings to play mediator between the warring parties.

Yet Tehran has also been deeply unsettled by what it views as Western and Israeli "influence" in the South Caucasus, calling on both Azerbaijan and Armenia to push back on "extra-regional" foreign interference.

Seeking its own foothold in the region, Iran argues that close ties between its top enemy, Israel, and Azerbaijan, complicate the political and security dynamics in the South Caucasus.

With regard to Armenia, Iranian authorities have repeatedly sounded the alarm on its military drills with the United States.

Armenia's growing tendency toward an EU border monitoring mission has separately caused concern in Tehran—as in its view, the plan could lead to potential international border changes, undermining the Iranian strategic reach in the volatile region.