Ali Akbar Velayati, who serves as a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said on Saturday that Iran would block the establishment of the so-called Zangezur corridor, which seeks to connect Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan through the Armenian territory.
“The security in Southern Caucasus is at stake with the implementation of this plot ... and Iran has emphasized that with or without Russia it would move to (preserve) stability in Southern Caucasus,” Velayati told the Tasnim news agency.
He said that Iran believes that Russia is strategically opposed to the plan for establishing a US-controlled corridor in Armenia.
Under a deal signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Washington on Friday, Armenia granted exclusive rights to the US to develop a corridor in its southern Syunik province, which borders Iran, to connect Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan.
Iran has for long opposed the idea, saying it would change the geopolitical order of the Southern Caucasus and would restrict Iran’s ability to use transport networks in the region.
Velayati said US President Donald Trump’s touting of the transport corridor as a way of establishing peace in the region is just “meaningless”.
The official, who served as Iran’s foreign minister from 1981 to 1997, said that the project would lead to the disintegration of Armenia and is opposed by the people in the country.
He said the corridor would also lead to the increased presence of the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the region.
“We will not allow NATO to approach Iran’s northern borders,” he said.
Press TV