Iran agrees to host Azerbaijani corridor bypassing Armenia

Tasnim News Agency said in a report that Tehran and Baku have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on building the 55-kilometer Zangezur-Nakhichevan highway through Iran.

The MoU was signed between Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev and Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister Rostam Qassemi.

However, details of the project published in the Azerbaijani media showed that the link connecting Zangezur in west Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan will be in the form of a corridor that runs just five kilometers from the border between Iran and Armenia and will include railways, roads and electricity transfer facilities.

Baku has been seeking to set up a similar corridor to Nakhichevan through the Armenian territory in return for granting access to Armenia to a corridor that connects the country to Karabakh region inside Azerbaijan.

The idea has been mooted periodically since the end of a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in July 2020. However, it has been rejected by Armenia while getting a cold reception from Iran.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in a Saturday meeting with Qassemi that the corridor between Zangezur and Nakhichevan through Iran will become a major transit route in the region.

Aliev’s foreign policy advisor Hikmat Hajiyev also described the signing of the MoU on the project as a historic event.

“Armenia’s policy of blockade of Nakhichevan over many years will be ceased thanks to the implementation of this project,” Hajiyev was quoted as saying by Azerbaijan’s official Azertac news agency.