Iran has stated it can block a hall deliberate within the Caucasus beneath a United States-brokered peace accord between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which has been hailed by different international locations within the area as useful for reaching lasting peace.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a prime adviser to Iran’s supreme chief, stated on Saturday that Tehran would block the initiative “with or with out Russia”, with which Iran has a strategic alliance alongside Armenia.
US President Donald Trump “thinks the Caucasus is a chunk of actual property he can lease for 99 years”, Velayati advised state-affiliated Tasnim Information, referring to the transport hall included within the peace deal.
“This passage won’t develop into a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it can develop into their graveyard,” he added, describing the plan as “political treachery” aimed toward undermining Armenia’s territorial integrity.
The phrases of the accord, which was unveiled at a signing ceremony on the White Home on Friday, embody unique US improvement rights to a route by Armenia that may hyperlink Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave that borders Baku’s ally Turkiye.
The hall, which might move near the border with Iran, could be named the Trump Route for Worldwide Peace and Prosperity, or TRIPP, and function beneath Armenian regulation.
Velayati argued that it might open the best way for NATO to place itself “like a viper” between Iran and Russia.
Individually, Iran’s international ministry issued a press release expressing concern concerning the detrimental penalties of any international intervention within the neighborhood of its borders.
Whereas it welcomed the peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the ministry stated any undertaking close to Iran’s borders ought to be developed “with respect for nationwide sovereignty and territorial integrity, and with out international interference”.
For its half, Russia’s Ministry of International Affairs cautiously welcomed the deal, saying on Saturday that Moscow supported efforts to advertise stability and prosperity within the area, together with the Washington assembly.
Equally to Iran, nonetheless, it warned in opposition to outdoors intervention, arguing that lasting options ought to be developed by international locations within the area.
“The involvement of non-regional gamers ought to strengthen the peace agenda, not create new divisions,” the ministry stated, including that it hoped to keep away from the “unlucky expertise” of Western-led battle decision within the Center East.
In the meantime, Turkiye on Saturday stated it hoped the deliberate transit hall would enhance exports of power and different assets by the South Caucasus.
A NATO member, Turkiye has strongly backed Azerbaijan in its conflicts with Armenia, however has pledged to revive ties with Yerevan after it indicators a last peace take care of Baku.
The Turkish presidency stated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned the peace settlement with Ilham Aliyev, his counterpart from Azerbaijan, and supplied Ankara’s assist in reaching lasting peace within the area.
Turkish International Minister Hakan Fidan additionally addressed the deliberate hall throughout a go to to Egypt, saying it might “hyperlink Europe with the depths of Asia by way of Turkiye” and could be “a really useful improvement”.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a sequence of wars because the late Nineteen Eighties when Nagorno-Karabakh, a area in Azerbaijan that had a principally ethnic Armenian inhabitants on the time, broke away from Azerbaijan with assist from Armenia.
Armenia final 12 months agreed to return several villages to Azerbaijan in what Baku described as a “long-awaited historic occasion”.
Ahmad Shahidov, of the Azerbaijan Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, advised Al Jazeera that he anticipated a last peace declaration between Armenia and Azerbaijan to be signed within the coming weeks.
Shahidov stated Friday’s US-brokered deal constituted a “roadmap” for the ultimate settlement, which seems imminent given there aren’t any unresolved territorial disputes between the 2 neighbours.
