Armenia seeks to allay Iran's fears as US-backed land route with Azerbaijan advances
The planned corridor aims to connect key players in the South Caucasus but has raised tensions with Iran over access and control.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan briefed Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian in a telephone call on Monday about the Aug. 8 peace summit hosted by President Donald Trump in Washington.
Pashinyan is believed to have sought to allay Tehran’s fears concerning a proposed land corridor running from Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave bordering Turkey that would potentially cut Iran off from strategic Black Sea trading routes.
A yet-to-be-identified US company will operate the route under Armenian sovereignty on a 99-year lease under the terms of a document that was signed by Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev under Trump’s auspices. The corridor is expected to cleave through Armenian territory bordering Iran. Tehran has repeatedly declared it a red line, staging war games on the border with Armenia to ram the message home.
The deal is the latest in a series of geostrategic setbacks suffered by the Islamic Republic since Israel began attacking its proxies in Syria and Lebanon and then struck Iran itself, an escalation leading to a 12-day war in June. The United States intervened, striking Iranian nuclear facilities with bunker busters for the first time before brokering a ceasefire.
