YEREVAN: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told Iran’s president on Tuesday that a planned corridor linking Azerbaijan with its exclave would be under Armemian control, as Iran had voiced opposition to the project.

The land corridor, dubbed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP), is part of a deal signed this month in Washington between Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics previously engulfed in decades of disputes over territory.

Under the agreement, the United States will hold development rights for the proposed route, which would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave bordering Iran and Turkey.

“Roads passing through Armenia will be under the exclusive jurisdiction of Armenia, and security will be provided by Armenia, not by any third country,” Pashinyan said at a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Yerevan.

He added that the corridor would open new economic perspectives between the two countries, and could offer a rail route from Iran to the Black Sea coast through Armenia.

“Governance in the Caucasus region must remain Caucasian – outsourcing the resolution of Caucasus issues to extra-regional forces will complicate it,” Pezeshkian said during his visit.

“Iran’s position has always been to reject any changes to international borders in the Caucasus region,” he added.

Iran has long opposed the planned transit route, also known as the Zangezur corridor, fearing it would cut the country off from Armenia and the rest of the Caucasus while bringing potentially hostile foreign forces close to its borders.

Tehran had previously warned Yerevan that the corridor could be part of a US ploy “to pursue hegemonic goals in the Caucasus region”.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2025