Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Zangezur Corridor is Detrimental to Armenia

TEHRAN — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reaffirmed on Tuesday Tehran’s strong opposition to Azerbaijan’s efforts to secure a land corridor through Armenia to its Nakhichevan exclave.

Khamenei made that clear at a meeting with Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan who was visiting Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

“He emphasized the importance of maintaining the territorial integrity of Armenia and affirmed that the Islamic Republic of Iran views the Zangezur corridor as detrimental to Armenia, reaffirming its steadfast position on this matter,” read a statement posted on Khamenei’s official website.

The statement said Pashinyan reiterated, for his part, that the Armenian government also remains opposed to the extraterritorial transport corridor sought by Azerbaijan as well as Turkey. It would pass through Syunik, the only Armenian province bordering Iran. Tehran has repeatedly warned against attempts to strip the Islamic Republic of the common border and transport links with Armenia.

Yerevan has said that people and goods moving between Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan cannot be exempt from Armenian border controls and that the two South Caucasus states should have only conventional transport links guaranteeing their full control over all transit routes passing through their respective territories.

During the meeting the two men expressed confidence that their countries will continue to further deepen their “warm and friendly relations.”

“We are firmly committed to developing relations with Armenia, and the cooperation between the two countries will continue strongly based on defined mutual interests, regardless of the policies of others.” Khamenei was reported to tell Pashinyan.

It was their second meeting in just over two months. Pashinyan visited Tehran in late May to attend the funeral of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials killed in a helicopter crash.