Iran opposes planned Trump-backed corridor in South Caucasus

Iran has warned against a planned transport corridor proposed under a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia, brokered with backing from U.S. President Donald Trump, saying it could threaten regional stability.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the plan, part of a US-brokered peace deal signed in Washington on 8 August, would undermine Armenia’s territorial integrity, fragment its borders, and cut Iran out of regional trade routes. He warned that “whether with Russia or without Russia, we will move to protect the security of the South Caucasus.”

The agreement, signed by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev alongside US President Donald Trump, grants Washington exclusive development rights to a strategic land link between mainland Azerbaijan and its Nakhchivan exclave via southern Armenia. Dubbed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” by the White House, it is promoted as a boost for energy exports and regional trade.

Velayati dismissed the idea as “impossible” and “political treachery,” telling Tasnim News that “this passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries, it will become their graveyard.” He recalled that Iran had staged military drills along its northwestern border in the past to signal opposition to the so-called Zangezur corridor, previously advanced by Turkey and Azerbaijan.

While Iran’s foreign ministry described the peace deal as an “important step” toward stability, it warned that projects near its borders must respect national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and mutual interests and be free of foreign interference.

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