“We are not allies,” the New York Times quoted Sobhani as saying in an article published late on Tuesday. “We have some differences, and we have some mutual interests. It doesn’t mean that we are allied.”
Despite their growing military cooperation and standoffs with the West, Moscow and Tehran seem to disagree on Azerbaijan’s demands for a transport corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave passing through Syunik, the only Armenian region bordering Iran. The Islamic Republic fears that the extraterritorial corridor would strip it of its common border with Armenia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sparked angry reactions from Iran with his August 19 statement accusing Armenia of “sabotaging” a Russian-brokered agreement to build a highway and railway connecting Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan via Syunik. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador in Tehran to warn Moscow against contributing to any “geopolitical changes” in the region.
The Russian Foreign Ministry downplayed the tensions in September, saying that it has clarified to the Iranian side its renewed calls for the transport corridor also sought by Turkey. It insisted that Moscow is not seeking any arrangements that would change the “existing geopolitical borders” and compromise Armenia’s territorial integrity.
“We cannot accept the change of the international border,” Sobhani told the New York Times in this regard.
Asked what Iran will do if Azerbaijan invades Armenia to try to forcibly open the corridor, the envoy replied: “It will not happen.”
The mayor of Agarak, a small Armenian town on the Iranian border, was quoted by the paper as saying that he has discussed the matter with unnamed Iranian officials. “They all confirm that if, God forbid, someone attacks Syunik, we will fight alongside you,” said Khachatur Andreasian.
Russian officials have said that they simply want Armenia to comply with Paragraph 9 of a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The clause says that Yerevan will “guarantee the security of transport links” between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan and also stipulates that Russian border guards will “control” the movement of people, vehicles and goods through Syunik.
Baku wants that traffic to be exempt from Armenian border controls. Yerevan rejects these demands. Armenian officials also say the truce accord does not allow the Russian border guards to escort the traffic or be involved in border checks.
The New York Times article further cited Armenian concerns that a possible further toughening of U.S. policy towards Iran during the upcoming second presidency of Donald Trump would embolden Azerbaijan.
“If the current conflict between Iran and Israel, fueled by the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon, escalates into a full-scale war, they [Armenians] also worry that Tehran would be less able to protect Armenia,” it said.