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 Türkiye.
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 country'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 program and the aftermath of a 12-day war with Israel in June, lacks the military power to block the corridor.
MOSCOW SAYS WEST SHOULD STEER CLEAR
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-off conflict.
Russia, a traditional broker and ally of Armenia in the strategically important South Caucasus region which is crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines, was not included, despite its border guards being stationed on the border between Armenia and Iran.
While Moscow said it supported the summit, it proposed "implementing solutions developed by the countries of the region themselves with the support of their immediate neighbors – Russia, Iran and Türkiye" to avoid what it called the "sad experience" of Western efforts to mediate in the Middle East.
Azerbaijan's close ally, NATO member Türkiye, welcomed the accord.
Baku and Yerevan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory's 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
"The chapter of enmity is closed and now we're moving towards lasting peace," said Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan's ambassador to Britain, predicting that the wider region's prosperity and transport links would be transformed for the better.
"This is a paradigm shift," said Suleymanov, who as a former envoy to Washington who used to work in President Aliyev's office, is one of his country's most senior diplomats.
Suleymanov declined to speculate on when a final peace deal would be signed however, noting that Aliyev had said he wanted it to happen soon.
There remained only one obstacle, said Suleymanov, which was for Armenia to amend its constitution to remove a reference to Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Azerbaijan is ready to sign any time once Armenia fulfils the very basic commitment of removing its territorial claim against Azerbaijan in its constitution," he said.
MANY QUESTIONS UNANSWERED
Pashinyan this year called for a referendum to change the constitution, but no date for it has been set yet. Armenia is to hold parliamentary elections in June 2026, and the new constitution is expected to be drafted before the vote.
The Armenian leader said on X that the Washington summit had paved the way to end the decades of conflict and open transport connections that would unlock strategic economic opportunities.
Asked when the transit rail route would start running, Suleymanov said that would depend on cooperation between the US and Armenia whom he said were already in talks.
Joshua Kucera, Senior South Caucasus analyst at International Crisis Group, said Trump may not have got the easy win he had hoped for as the agreements left many questions unanswered.
The issue of Armenia's constitution continued to threaten to derail the process, and it was not clear how the new transport corridor would work in practice.
"Key details are missing, including about how customs checks and security will work and the nature of Armenia's reciprocal access to Azerbaijani territory. These could be serious stumbling blocks," said Kucera.
Suleymanov played down suggestions that Russia, which still has extensive security and economic interests in Armenia, was being disadvantaged.
"Anybody and everybody can benefit from this if they choose to," he said.
