At a meeting with Pezeshkian on Tuesday in the Armenian capital Yerevan, Pashinyan stated, “Roads passing through Armenia will be under the exclusive jurisdiction of Armenia, and security will be provided by Armenia, not by any third country.” He added that the corridor would provide an Armenian-Iranian rail link and new economic perspectives for the two nations.
The “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP), or land corridor, is a part of a deal signed this month between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which was formerly a rebellious country.
The proposed route, which would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave bordering Iran and Turkey, will be developed under the terms of the agreement.
Pezeshkian said during his visit on Tuesday that “Governance in the Caucasus region must remain Caucasian; outsourcing the resolution of Caucasus issues to extra-regional forces will make things more difficult.” The Islamic Republic has always rejected any changes to regional international borders.
Iran has long opposed the proposed Zangezur corridor, citing concerns that it would isolate Armenia from the rest of the Caucasus and encircle its borders with potentially hostile foreign forces.
Iranian officials have increased their warnings to Armenia since the deal was signed on August 8 by claiming the project might be a part of a US plot to “urge hegemonic goals in the Caucasus region.”
Other nations in the region have praised the proposed corridor as beneficial, including Russia, with which Iran has a strategic alliance along with Armenia.
Since the late 1980s, Armenia and Azerbaijan have engaged in numerous conflict since the Armenian government supported its split from Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that at the time had a predominantly Armenian population, was at the time. In a military operation in 2023, Azerbaijan Baku seized control of the area, leading to the exodus of the ethnic Armenian population.
Source: Aljazeera
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