Iran’s top foreign policy adviser said Tehran has successfully blocked a proposed land corridor that would have connected Azerbaijan to Turkey via Armenia’s Syunik province, warning that the project posed serious security risks and threatened to isolate Iran from key regional routes.
In a June 10 interview with the Tasnim News Agency, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the route, called the Zangezur Corridor, was a “geopolitical maneuver disguised as a transport project,” aimed at undermining Iran’s regional position.
Velayati said the route threatened to sever Iran’s land access to Europe and shift the regional balance in ways detrimental to Tehran. He added that Iranian authorities had acted swiftly to counter what he described as a broader strategy to isolate Iran and contain Russia from the south.
He also claimed that former US president Joe Biden had acknowledged the corridor’s infrastructure and political preparedness, although no public record of such a statement exists.
The Zangezur Corridor proposal emerged after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. Under the terms of a Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement, Article 9 called for the reopening of regional transportation routes, including those between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan.
While Azerbaijan interprets this clause as supporting a dedicated corridor, Armenia maintains that it refers only to standard transit routes, with all infrastructure remaining under Armenian sovereignty.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has rejected the corridor concept, insisting that any projects be carried out under full Armenian jurisdiction. Turkey, meanwhile, continues to back the plan. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has described the corridor as key to regional connectivity.
During a 2023 bilateral summit in Nakhchivan with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Erdoğan said alternative routes through Iranian territory could be considered if Armenia blocked access. The joint Shusha Declaration, signed in 2021, had earlier outlined the strategic infrastructure goals of both countries.
Iran has consistently warned that such a corridor would threaten its only land link to Armenia — a route that provides its sole direct access to the Caucasus and Europe. Tehran has also raised concerns about growing Turkish-Azerbaijani cooperation, citing potential implications for Iran’s own Azerbaijani population in the north.
Velayati said Iran’s continued presence in the region was vital to preventing foreign intervention and maintaining existing security arrangements.
Despite its opposition to the corridor, Iran has continued to deepen energy ties with Armenia. Armenia’s minister of territorial administration and infrastructures, David Khudatyan, recently announced progress on a long-delayed high-voltage electricity transmission line connecting the two countries.
Officials said 80 percent of the project has been completed, with full operation expected in 2026. Once online, the new line will be the third of its kind and will triple the current electricity exchange capacity from 350 to 1,200 megawatts.
According to government sources, the expanded grid will improve the efficiency of the gas-for-electricity swap program and further strengthen bilateral energy cooperation.
While Iran frames the Zangezur Corridor as a direct threat to national security, Azerbaijan and Turkey continue to promote it as a strategic link for trade and transport. The future of the project may ultimately hinge on regional diplomacy and the interests of outside powers invested in the South Caucasus.