The political deputy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard criticized the recent US-brokered Armenia-Azerbaijan agreement on the Zangezur corridor, warning the deal risks destabilizing the strategically vital South Caucasus region.
Yadollah Javani condemned Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for “falling for the gambler Trump’s trap” by involving the US, Britain, and NATO in the region, ignoring the interests of key neighbors.
In a statement titled “Aliyev and Pashinyan on Zelensky’s Road to Misery,” Javani compared their actions to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to invite NATO into Russia’s traditional security zone, which precipitated Russia’s invasion.
“The strategic error by Zelensky has so far imposed heavy and irreversible costs on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Javani wrote, “and now Aliyev and Pashinyan risk similar consequences by leasing the Zangezur corridor exclusively to the United States for 99 years, provoking Iran, Russia, China, and India.”
The corridor, designed to link Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave through southern Armenia, was renamed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP) following the deal signed at the White House on Friday.
Although it remains under Armenian jurisdiction, the land will be leased to a private American company responsible for construction and logistics.
Iran, which shares a border near the corridor, has expressed fierce opposition.
Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told state media that Tehran would block the corridor’s establishment even without Russia’s help.
He accused Washington of attempting to reshape the South Caucasus and said, “This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries; it will become their graveyard.”
Ali Bagheri Kani, the secretary of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, told state broadcaster IRIB on Saturday “the Islamic Republic will not easily overlook the issue of Zangezur.”
