( AFP ) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cut short a visit to neighbouring Armenia on Tuesday to return to Tehran, the Armenian presidential administration told AFP.
Ahmadinejad cancelled a series of events on Tuesday and was due to leave the Armenian capital Yerevan for Tehran on a late-morning flight, an official in Armenian presidential press service said, without providing an explanation.
"There have been changes in the programme of the Iranian president's visit. He will return to Tehran before the planned time," the official said.
Ahmadinejad had been due Tuesday to visit a memorial to victims of the Ottoman massacres of Armenians between 1915 and 1917, a regular stop for visiting dignitaries. He had also been scheduled to visit Yerevan's Blue Mosque and to meet with members of the Iranian community here.
On Monday, Ahmadinejad praised growing economic and political cooperation between Iran and Armenia, shoring up closer ties with the ex-Soviet republic on Iran's northern border.