Iran will stop the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus even without Moscow’s help, as it would endanger regional security and alter the geopolitical map, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Saturday.
“Mister Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Velayati told IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News, referring to the route included in Friday’s US-brokered Armenia–Azerbaijan peace deal.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” he said, dismissing the idea as “impossible” and “political treachery” aimed at undermining Armenia’s territorial integrity.
He stressed that Iran has “always opposed” the so-called Zangezur corridor, saying it would alter borders, fragment Armenia, and restrict Iran’s own regional access. He said that when Turkey and Azerbaijan previously pushed the plan, Iran staged multiple military drills on its northwestern frontier to signal readiness to block it.
US-brokered deal signed in Washington
Velayati’s remarks came a day after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a US-brokered peace agreement at the White House alongside US President Donald Trump.
The accord grants Washington exclusive development rights to a strategic transit route across Armenia that would link mainland Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave, without passing through Iran or Russia. The White House said the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” would boost energy exports and trade across the region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in conflict since the late 1980s over Nagorno-Karabakh, fighting several wars, most recently in 2023 when Baku regained full control of the enclave. Russia mediated in past years, but its influence has waned since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Tehran warns of foreign interference
Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday said it “welcomes” the peace text as an “important step” toward lasting stability, but warned that projects near its borders should be implemented “within the framework of mutual interests, with respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and without foreign interference.”
Velayati echoed that line, saying “whether with Russia or without Russia, we will move to protect the security of the South Caucasus” and adding that he believes Moscow is also opposed to the corridor on strategic grounds.
NATO ‘snake’ at the border
Calling the corridor “a political plot, not just a trade passage,” Velayati said it would open the way for NATO to position itself “like a viper” between Iran and Russia. He argued that no Armenian government could legitimately agree to the “partition” of its territory, regardless of US pressure, and claimed that even Prime Minister Pashinyan had previously told Iranian leaders he opposed the route.
