Tehran : Iran threatened on Saturday to block a corridor planned in the Caucasus under a regional deal sponsored by US President Donald Trump, Iranian media reported, raising a new question mark over a peace plan hailed as a strategically important shift.A top Azerbaijani diplomat said earlier that the plan, announced by Trump on Friday, was just one step from a final peace deal between his country and Armenia, which reiterated its support for the plan.
The proposed Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) would run across southern Armenia, giving Azerbaijan a direct route to its exclave of Nakhchivan and, in turn, to Turkey.The US would have exclusive development rights to the corridor, which the White House said would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
It was not immediately clear how Iran, which borders the area, would block it, but the statement from Ali Akbar Velayati, top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, raised questions over its security.He said military exercises carried out in northwest Iran demonstrated the Islamic Republic’s readiness and determination to prevent any geopolitical changes.
“This corridor will not become a passage owned by Trump, but rather a graveyard for Trump’s mercenaries,” Velayati said.Iran’s foreign ministry earlier welcomed the agreement “as an important step toward lasting regional peace”, but warned against any foreign intervention near its borders that could “undermine the region’s security and lasting stability”.
Analysts and insiders say that Iran, under mounting US pressure over its disputed nuclear programme and the aftermath of a 12-day war with Israel in June, lacks the military power to block the corridor.Trump welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the White House on Friday and witnessed their signing of a joint declaration aimed at drawing a line under their decades-long on-and-off conflict.
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