By Ruzanna Stepanian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — A top Iranian security official reportedly reaffirmed Iran’s support for Armenia’s position on transport links with Azerbaijan during talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held in Yerevan on Thursday, January 9.
Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, had arrived in the Armenian capital the previous night from Baku where he had met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The meeting took place the day after Aliyev renewed his threats to forcibly open a land corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave through Syunik, the only Armenian province bordering Iran. Official readouts of it did not mention the issue.
According to the Armenian government’s press office, Pashinyan and Ahmadian discussed, among other things, Yerevan’s “Crossroads of Peace” project designed to serve as a blueprint for opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to travel and commerce. The project says that Armenia and Azerbaijan should have full control of transport infrastructure inside each other’s territory.
“Ali Akbar Ahmadian noted that Iran supports the implementation of the project based on the principles enshrined in it,” the office said in a statement.
Baku insists on an extraterritorial corridor that would exempt people and cargo transported to and from Nakhichevan through Syunik from Armenian border checks. Tehran is strongly opposed to the so-called “Zangezur corridor.” It has repeatedly warned against attempts to strip it of transport links or the common border with Armenia.