Tehran stepped up at the weekend its criticism of Moscow’s position expressed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during President Vladimir Putin’s August 18-19 visit to Baku. Lavrov accused Armenia of “sabotaging” a Russian-brokered agreement to build a highway and railway connecting Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan via Syunik, the only Armenian province bordering Iran.
The accusation prompted serious concern from Iran, which fears losing its common border with Armenia. The Iranian Foreign Ministry reportedly summoned Russia’s ambassador in Tehran last week to warn Moscow against contributing to any “geopolitical changes” in the region.
“We do not accept any changes to borders. My advice to Russia and Azerbaijan is to respect these boundaries,” Ali Nikzad, a deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament, said in a weekend post on X.
“We have repeatedly communicated to regional nations that the Zangezur Corridor is a red line for Iran, and any alterations will provoke a strong and serious response,” Ebrahim Azizi, the chairman of the parliament committee on national security and foreign relations, told the ISNA news agency.
Armenia/Iran - The Arax river separating Armenia and Iran.
A member of the Iranian panel, Fadahossein Maleki, went further, calling Russia’s perceived support for that corridor a “stab in the back” in comments to another Iranian news agency, Tasnim.
“I am grateful for Iran's concern,” Alen Simonian, the Armenian parliament speaker told reporters on Monday. “I thank them for the statements.”
“We always live with the understanding that an attack and [aggressive] steps are possible against the sovereign territory of Armenia,” he added without elaborating.
Earlier on Monday, the Iranian Embassy in Yerevan tweeted that the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, thanked Tehran for “supporting Armenia’s territorial integrity” during a meeting with Ambassador Mehdi Sobhani. The embassy also quoted Grigorian as saying that “no force can break the territorial connection between Iran and Armenia.”
Grigorian’s office issued no readout of the meeting. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan made clear that Armenia continues to oppose the extraterritorial corridor to Nakhichevan.
“Nothing that involves creating a corridor and handing over control of it to another party is being discussed,” he told a news conference. “We have said that for Armenia the presence of third powers and control [of its transit routes] by third powers is out of question.”
AZERBAIJAN - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku, May 10, 2021.
Mirzoyan seemed to allude to Lavrov’s references to a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal that stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. It says that Russian border guards stationed in Syunik will “control” the movement of people, vehicles and goods between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan.
Moscow and Yerevan have different interpretations of this provision. Armenian officials have said that it only allows the Russians to “monitor” the traffic, rather than escort it, let alone be involved in border controls. They have also accused Mocow of turning a blind eye to Baku’s failure to comply with other, more important terms of the truce accord.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on August 31 Yerevan is ready to let a foreign private company provide “additional security” along the would-be transport links for Nakhichevan. In Mirzoyan’s words, it would “escort passengers or cargo,” rather than replace Armenian border and customs officers.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry indicated later on Monday that such an arrangement would not satisfy Baku. A ministry spokesman said the Armenian side must honor its “obligations” regarding the transport links for Nakhichevan.