Pezeshkian repeated Tehran’s opposition to any “outsourcing of regional issues” to outside powers in his public statements made after the talks.
Pashinian committed to such a transit arrangement during talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on August 8. A relevant U.S.-Armenian memorandum signed there reportedly calls for a long-term U.S. lease on the corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s strategic Syunik province bordering Iran.
Washington is reportedly planning to sublease the land adjacent to the Armenian-Iranian border to a consortium of private companies that would manage the transit of people and cargo via Syunik. Crucial details of the arrangement, notably the practical modalities of Armenian border checks, remain unknown.
The issue was high on the agenda of Pezeshkian’s meeting with Pashinian that took place on the second day of his official visit to Yerevan. Pashinian again insisted after the talks that the transit deal will benefit both Armenia and Iran. In particular, he said, the Islamic Republic will get a rail link to Armenia and Georgia through Nakhichevan.
“Communication routes passing through Armenia will be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Republic of Armenia and security [along them] will be ensured by Armenia, rather than a third country,” Pashinian told a joint news conference.
Pezeshkian was clearly not fully convinced by those assurances.
“We believe that management in the region must be Caucasian and that outsourcing issues to powers outside the region would further complicate the situation in the region,” he said.
The Iranian president made a similar point in an ensuing post on X. He said he told Pashinian that “our concerns regarding the presence of third-party forces near our common borders must be fully addressed.”
The Iranian Foreign Ministry voiced those concerns the day after Pashinian’s talks with Trump and Aliyev. A top aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei went further, saying that Tehran will prevent the opening of the “American corridor” through Armenia “with or without Russia.”
Pashinian spoke to Pezeshkian by phone on August 11 before sending Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian to Tehran. Kostanian reportedly assured Iranian officials that the corridor, named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), “does not mean a U.S. security presence in the region.”
“We understand that this has been one of the key concerns of the Iranian side, and I believe this concern has been addressed,” he told Iran’s official IRNA news agency in an interview published on August 14.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi commented on Yerevan’s assurances ahead of Pezeshkian’s visit to Armenia.
“They told us they are familiar with Iran’s red lines and will respect them in the future,” Araghchi told IRNA. “Nevertheless, we will continue to follow this matter very closely.”
Syunik is the only Armenian province bordering Iran. Hence, Tehran’s fears that an extraterritorial corridor to Nakhichevan demanded by Baku would strip the Islamic Republic of its common border or direct transport links with Armenia.
Pashinian’s transit deal with Trump has also been denounced by Armenia’s leading opposition groups. They say that its implementation would satisfy the Azerbaijani demands and undermine Armenian sovereignty over Syunik,