Iran objects to US plan on Armenia-Azerbaijan transit route

Tehran has argued that Washington’s corridor proposal is a ploy to isolate it along with Russia and weaken their influence in the region

Iran has condemned a US-backed plan to establish a transit route through Armenia which would be under US control, warning that it poses a threat to regional stability and would undermine Tehran’s security interests.

On Friday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and US President Donald Trump signed an agreement in Washington to open the Zangezur transport corridor. The route links mainland Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhichevan through a narrow strip of land in southern Armenia along the border with Iran.

Under the agreement, the US will manage the corridor under Armenian sovereignty via a 99-year land lease, subletting it to a consortium for construction and operations.

While Tehran said it welcomes peace agreements between Yerevan and Baku, it “vehemently” opposes placing the corridor under US control. Iranian officials argue that it would cut Iran off from Armenia and destabilize the South Caucasus by allowing a foreign military and commercial presence.

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Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the project a geopolitical scheme by the US and Israel to weaken the Islamic Republic, sever its connection with the Caucasus, and impose a land blockade on both Iran and Russia. He claimed it was part of a wider NATO-backed strategy, supported by pan-Turkic movements, to shift the Western focus from Ukraine to the Caucasus.

“The Caucasus is one of the most sensitive geographical points in the world, and this corridor will not be a transit route in Trump’s possession but a graveyard for his mercenaries,” Velayati said, adding that Russia is also “strategically against” the project.

Moscow has said it welcomes efforts to achieve stability and prosperity in the South Caucasus and to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that the best solutions are those developed by the countries in the region and their immediate neighbors — specifically Russia, Iran, and Turkey.

She noted that trilateral agreements signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war remain in force and relevant, and that Armenia’s border with Iran continues to be guarded by Russian border forces under a 1992 treaty.