Iran opposes the creation of a corridor near the Iranian border linking Azerbaijan to its Naxcivan exclave, proposed as part of a US-brokered Azerbaijan-Armenia peace deal, an aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday.
Ali Akbar Velayati said the South Caucasus region wasn’t “some no-man’s land” that US President Donald Trump can lease, the Tasnim news agency reported. “Trump seems to think he’s a real estate broker and wants to lease a land or region.”
Calling the Caucasus region “one of the most sensitive geographic points in the world,” Velayati, who advises Khamanei on foreign policy matters, said the passageway would become “a graveyard for Trump’s mercenaries.”
Peace in Caucasus Could Open New Trade Link
Baku, Ankara pushed for so-called Zangezur Corridor to connect separate Azeri lands via Armenia
The planned route, known as the Zangezur Corridor but dubbed on Friday as the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,” is an element of a peace deal signed at the White House on Friday between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Under the agreement, the US would get exclusive development rights for up to 99 years to the transit route across southern Armenia linking the bulk of Azerbaijan’s territory to the Naxcivan exclave, which borders Turkey.
US officials portrayed the agreements as a win for Washington and a setback for Russia, Iran and China. While the peace declaration doesn’t carry the legal force of a treaty, the leaders on hand at the signing ceremony expressed confidence its terms would hold.
If implemented, the proposed corridor would change the region’s geopolitical position and shift borders, and “is designed for the partition of Armenia,” Velayati said.
“The idea of leasing a corridor to another country is naive, and Trump is playing dumb. Such a claim, that Trump could lease a corridor on this side of the world, is like someone from here going to lease the Panama Canal for themselves,” he said. “It’s impossible, and won’t happen.”
Iran believes Russia is also strategically opposed to the corridor, Velayati said.
Posted by Straight-Plan-4487
5 Comments
I mean, no shit, but extremely dumb for them to say out loud considering how temperamental orange man is
Iran should threaten to release proof of the downed F-35s and captured Israeli pilots if the corridor isn’t halted.
If Aremenia and Azerbaijan both are fine with it, Iran really doesnt get a vote.
Big talk from somebody who can’t spot B2-Bombers
“I consent”
“I consent”
(Ayatollah face) “is there someone you forgot to ask?”