Iran threatened on
Saturday to block a corridor planned in the Caucasus under a
regional deal sponsored by U.S. President Donald Trump, Iranian
media reported, raising a new question mark over a peace plan
hailed as a strategically important shift.
A top Azerbaijani diplomat said earlier that the plan,
announced by Trump on Friday, was just one step from a final
peace deal between his country and Armenia, which reiterated its
support for the plan.
The proposed Trump Route for International Peace and
Prosperity (TRIPP) would run across southern Armenia, giving
Azerbaijan a direct route to its exclave of Nakhchivan and in
turn to Turkey.
The U.S. would have exclusive development rights to the
corridor, which the White House said would facilitate greater
exports of energy and other resources.
It was not immediately clear how Iran, which borders the
area, would block it but the statement from Ali Akbar Velayati,
top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, raised questions over its
security.
He said military exercises carried out in northwest Iran
demonstrated the Islamic Republic’s readiness and determination
to prevent any geopolitical changes.
“This corridor will not become a passage owned by Trump, but
rather a graveyard for Trump’s mercenaries,” Velayati said.
Iran’s foreign ministry earlier welcomed the agreement “as
an important step toward lasting regional peace”, but warned
against any foreign intervention near its borders that could
“undermine the region’s security and lasting stability”.
Analysts and insiders say that Iran, under mounting US
pressure over its disputed nuclear programme and the aftermath
of a 12-day war with Israel in June, lacks the military power to
block the corridor.
MOSCOW SAYS WEST SHOULD STEER CLEAR
Trump welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the White House on
Friday and witnessed their signing of a joint declaration aimed
at drawing a line under their decades-long on-off conflict.
Russia, a traditional broker and ally of Armenia in the
strategically important South Caucasus region which is
crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines, was not included,
despite its border guards being stationed on the border between
Armenia and Iran.
While Moscow said it supported the summit, it proposed
“implementing solutions developed by the countries of the region
themselves with the support of their immediate neighbours \u2013
Russia, Iran and Turkey” to avoid what it called the “sad
experience” of Western efforts to mediate in the Middle East.
Azerbaijan’s close ally, NATO member Turkey, welcomed the
accord.
Baku and Yerevan have been at odds since the late 1980s when
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly
populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with
support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the
region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory’s 100,000
ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
“The chapter of enmity is closed and now we’re moving
towards lasting peace,” said Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s
ambassador to Britain, predicting that the wider region’s
prosperity and transport links would be transformed for the
better.
“This is a paradigm shift,” said Suleymanov, who as a former
envoy to Washington who used to work in President Aliyev’s
office, is one of his country’s most senior diplomats.
Suleymanov declined to speculate on when a final peace deal
would be signed however, noting that Aliyev had said he wanted
it to happen soon.
There remained only one obstacle, said Suleymanov, which was
for Armenia to amend its constitution to remove a reference to
Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Azerbaijan is ready to sign any time once Armenia fulfils
the very basic commitment of removing its territorial claim
against Azerbaijan in its constitution,” he said.
MANY QUESTIONS UNANSWERED
Pashinyan this year called for a referendum to change the
constitution, but no date for it has been set yet. Armenia is to
hold parliamentary elections in June 2026, and the new
constitution is expected to be drafted before the vote.
The Armenian leader said on X that the Washington summit had
paved the way to end the decades of conflict and open transport
connections that would unlock strategic economic opportunities.
Asked when the transit rail route would start running,
Suleymanov said that would depend on cooperation between the
U.S. and Armenia whom he said were already in talks.
Joshua Kucera, Senior South Caucasus analyst at
International Crisis Group, said Trump may not have got the easy
win he had hoped for as the agreements left many questions
unanswered.
The issue of Armenia’s constitution continued to threaten to
derail the process, and it was not clear how the new transport
corridor would work in practice.
“Key details are missing, including about how customs checks
and security will work and the nature of Armenia’s reciprocal
access to Azerbaijani territory. These could be serious
stumbling blocks,” said Kucera.
Suleymanov played down suggestions that Russia, which still
has extensive security and economic interests in Armenia, was
being disadvantaged.
“Anybody and everybody can benefit from this if they choose<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran threatened onSaturday to block a corridor planned in the Caucasus under aregional deal sponsored by U.S. President Donald Trump, Iranianmedia reported, raising a new question mark over a peace planhailed as a strategically important shift.A top Azerbaijani diplomat said earlier that the plan,announced by Trump on Friday, was just one step from a finalpeace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n