Iran has rejected US-backed plan to develop Armenia’s Zangezur corridor as part of a peace deal with Azerbaijan, branding it a challenge to regional security, a senior Iranian diplomat said.
It should be noted that on Friday, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a US-brokered agreement at the White House to resolve a long-standing dispute over a key transit corridor.
The strip of land, a source of tension in their decades-long conflict, will connect Azerbaijan with its exclave, Nakhchivan. It will be renamed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). While remaining under Armenian jurisdiction, the corridor will be leased by Washington to a private American company for construction and logistical management.
Iran voiced opposition, with Ali Bagheri Kani, secretary of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, warning that Tehran would not easily overlook the Zangezur issue. He noted that Russia’s foreign ministry also indicated that other nations would not remain silent.
Russia, historically a key broker in the South Caucasus, was excluded from the accord despite its border guards’ presence on the Armenia-Iran frontier. Supporting the peace summit, Moscow emphasized that regional disputes should be resolved by countries of the region, with assistance from immediate neighbors—Russia, Iran, and Turkey—cautioning against repeating the “sad experience” of Western mediation in the Middle East.
