Mehdi Sobhani pointed to a lack of specifics in Armenian officials’ statements on the subject.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pledged to give the U.S. exclusive rights to such a transport link during talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on August 8. It would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s strategic Syunik province bordering Iran.
Iran fears that the deal could pose a threat to the Armenian-Iranian border and lead to U.S. security presence in the area. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke out against any “outsourcing of regional issues” to outside powers when he visited Yerevan on August 19. Pezeshkian said afterwards that the Iranian concerns were “largely alleviated” during the trip. Iran’s more conservative ruling circles close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei seem to have been less sanguine on that score.
Armenian leaders have insisted that Yerevan will have full control over what will be called the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). But they have yet to specify practical modalities of the transit corridor. They have said only that it will be administered by a U.S.-Armenian joint venture.
“The functions of the road operator, the details are unclear,” Sobhani told a farewell news conference in Yerevan.
“We are talking about discussions that will result in the creation of a joint venture that will also attract investments,” said the envoy. “But no details are clear about this.”
Sobhani also stressed the importance of “reciprocity” in Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links.
“If Azerbaijani citizens can reach Azerbaijan through the territory of Armenia, the same reality should also exist for Armenian citizens so that Armenian citizens can likewise go to Iran through Nakhichevan,” he said.
Armenian opposition leaders have denounced the special transit arrangement, saying that it would endanger Armenia’s full control over Syunik and its common border with Iran. They maintain that Pashinian agreed to open the kind of an extraterritorial corridor that has been sought by Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev echoed the opposition claims when he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday. He said that the TRIPP will give Azerbaijan “unhindered passage through the Zangezur corridor.”
Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian, a top Pashinian ally, criticized Aliyev’s statement, saying that it is “disrespectful to the U.S. president.”
“It’s bad that Aliyev is saying this,” said Simonian. “But I think that over time that rhetoric will change.”
