What will Pashinyan oppose to the position of Iran’s supreme leader?

A very remarkable statement came from Iran the day before. Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy advisor to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Iran’s opposition to the opening of the Zangezur corridor is due to the fact that the West, under the cover of NATO, wants to carry out transportation along the east-west route through the territory of Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea, and Central Asia, and only Iran understood the depth of this conspiracy.

He added that “in recent years, amid the war in Ukraine, the United States—under the cover of NATO—has been trying to penetrate the South Caucasus region and actually create an alternative, while Russia’s attention is focused on Ukraine.” According to Velayati, “the West, led by the United States and with the help of some of its allies, has taken actions that have shown that the West and NATO do not have honest intentions towards the South Caucasus.” The statement is important for at least two reasons:

1. Around two months ago, we witnessed an aggravation in relations between Tehran and Moscow in the media space precisely on the issue of the Zangezur corridor. Even the Russian ambassador to Iran visited the Iranian Foreign Ministry on this occasion. Today, the statement by the representative of the supreme leader of Iran put an end to all disputes around this topic.

2. Last week, Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu stated that “Armenia is interested in passing the Zangezur Corridor through its territory,” as reported by Akşam.

If the interpretation of events is correct and that Turkish Minister Uraloglu is also not misleading, it is quite logical to conclude that NATO is trying to penetrate the region through Armenia and its leadership. Moreover, this “penetration” may threaten the interests of even official Baku. Isn’t this the “depth of conspiracy” that Velayati was talking about?

Velayati’s words are also confirmed by statements made earlier by representatives of the US State Department. Back in the summer, in the context of Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization, US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs O’Brien, during a hearing held at the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pointed out that the United States is considering the possibility of creating a new overland route from Central Asian countries to world markets through the territories of Armenia and Azerbaijan, bypassing Russia and China. Add to this the fact that in December 2023, Aliyev said that the United States demanded a “corridor” through the territory of Armenia instead of Iran (despite the fact that in the fall, Baku and Tehran agreed to conduct communication through Iran, with Tehran contributing to ensure the territorial integrity of Armenia), and it will become definitively clear who in the region is trying to implement the plans of Western transnational elites at the expense of the interests of Armenia. Plans in which Armenia is a bargaining chip in deterring Iran and Russia.

Think about it…