Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian headed to Armenia on Monday for talks on a planned corridor linking Azerbaijan with its exclave near the border with Iran, part of a peace deal signed at the White House.
Iran has long opposed the planned transit route, also known as the Zangezur corridor, fearing it would cut the country off from Armenia and the rest of the Caucasus, while bringing potentially hostile foreign forces close to its borders.
“The (possible) presence of American companies in the region is worrying,” Pezeshkian said before departing on a pre-planned trip that also includes a visit to Belarus, according to AFP.
“We will discuss it (with Armenian officials) and express our concerns,” he added, according to footage broadcast on state television.
The land corridor, dubbed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP), is part of a deal signed earlier this month in Washington between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Under the agreement, the United States will hold development rights for the proposed route, which would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave, passing near the Iranian border.
Earlier, Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said Tehran would not allow the creation of the planned corridor, warning that the area would become “a graveyard for Trump's mercenaries.”
Prior to Pezeshkian’s trip, Velayati wrote on X: “The proud history of the powerful and ancient Iranian nation shows that these people will never allow any compromise on their national security.”
In his post, Velayati used the hashtags “Alaska, Ukraine and the Caucasus,” a clear reference to the recent meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska last Friday.
Since the deal was signed, Iranian officials have stepped up warnings to Armenia, saying the project could be part of a US ploy “to pursue hegemonic goals in the Caucasus region.”
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described it as a “sensitive” issue, saying Tehran's main concern is that it could “lead to geopolitical changes in the region.”
“They (Armenian officials) have assured us that no American forces ... or American security companies will be present in Armenia under the pretext of this route,” he told the official IRNA news agency.
