Hikmet Hajiyev, Aliyev’s top foreign policy adviser, was received by Pezeshkian on Sunday during a visit to Tehran apparently aimed at easing lingering tensions in Azerbaijani-Iranian relations.
“Pezeshkian also underscored the significance of preserving territorial integrity of regional states as one of the main principles of Iran’s foreign policy, noting that changes to borders are unacceptable,” the Iranian presidential office said in its readout of the meeting released on Monday.
Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have repeatedly issued such warnings in recent years amid Baku’s demands for the opening of the extraterritorial corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Syunik, the only Armenian region bordering Iran. The Islamic Republic fears that the corridor would strip it of its common border with Armenia.
“The Zangezur corridor must be opened and it will be opened,” Aliyev said on January 7, adding that “the factor of force” is dominant in international affairs these days.
Aliyev repeated his demands on January 28, again accusing Yerevan of not complying with a relevant provision of a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The clause commits Armenia to opening rail and road links between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan through Syunik, the sole Armenian province bordering Iran. It says that Russian border guards will “control” the movement of people, vehicles and goods.
The Armenian government maintains that the truce accord calls for only conventional transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan and does not exempt people and cargo transported to and from Nakhichevan from Armenian border checks. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on January 30 that Yerevan could only agree to “some simplified procedures” for border crossings and transit.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sparked angry reactions from Iran after accusing Armenia last August of “sabotaging” the accord. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador in Tehran to warn Russia against contributing to any “geopolitical changes” in the region. Moscow insisted that it is not seeking any arrangements that would compromise Armenia’s territorial integrity.