Imaginary Zangezur corridor is the red line for Iran

Iran will not accept any redrawing of borders around Iran and counts it as a national security issue.

News ID: 84970

Date: 08 September 2024 - 10:31

TEHRAN (Defapress) - "Any threat against the territorial integrity of our neighbors, or the redrawing of borders, whether in the north, south, east, or west, is completely unacceptable and is considered a red line for the Islamic Republic of Iran," foreign minister of Iran, Araghchi, said on X.

Iran's taking a stand against any change in the neighboring countries' borders is one of Iran's main foreign strategies. In the issue of the imaginary Zangezur corridor, Azerbaijan with the support of NATO members, Turkey, the Zionist regime, and recently Russia, is trying to connect its borders with Nakhchivan. But first, we have to define the meaning of corridor.

Corridor in the international law literature means that the host country doesn't have any control over it. In other words, the Syunik province will be separated from Armenia and named Zangezur. In other words, the territory of Armenia will be reduced and will be added to Azerbaijan. That's against what Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed before, during the 44 days of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In the text of this peace treaty, there isn't any sign of a "corridor" and they just agreed on a transportation way between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan.

So the first problem comes from the incorrect understanding of the peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It's worth mentioning that NATO members, especially Britain insist on the imaginary Zangezur corridor because in this case, they can have easy access to the Caspian Sea and get closer to Iran's border. Considering the fact that NATO feels threatened by Iran, getting closer to Iran's border can be counted as another achievement for them. Also, they can reach easily Central Asia for business purposes.

The second problem comes after Russia stepped into the game after they felt that were losing the game in front of Western countries. The first shock to Russia came after the Russian peacekeepers were pushed out during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.  So based on previous experience, they offered another plan for the imaginary Zangezur corridor to play an impressive role in the region, in which in that plan, the Russian gas pipes would cross from that and Russian peacekeeper forces would control the corridor. But behind the scenes, the conflict between Putin and Pashinyan's political fronting caused the approach of Armenia to Western countries. Putin decided to punish Pashinyan's approach to the West by changing the side of its support from Armenia to Azerbaijan. The Russian officials forgot that the concept of controlling over Zangezur corridor is in the aura of ambiguity.

There is some doubt that the Russian position toward this corridor has another hidden reason which is after Iran's Presidential election, they worried about Iran's closeness to Western countries and signing an agreement between them; so they circumvented and tried to nip the future agreement at the bud.

But what are Iran's reasons for confronting this border change?

The first reason is that it is meaningless that despite the Aras corridor providing easy access between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan, the Zangezur corridor was launched.

The second is the economic efficiency of the corridor is a lot and has great impact on Iran's economy.

The third and most important reason is that the imaginary Zangezur corridor brings more foreign threats to Iran's border such as the closeness of separatist groups, the Zionist regime, and NATO bases near Iran.

The fourth reason is that border stability of the neighborhood countries can lead to starting national and international projects that have multiple benefits for Iran and other neighboring countries. If the stability is reduced and the map of countries' territory changes, the national and international multi-year plans with the aim of foresight will face severe issues.

In the end, based on the provided reasons, Iran's insist on preventing redrawing the borders of neighboring countries finds meaning. As Iran's officials announced, Any threat against the territorial integrity of our neighbors, or the redrawing of borders, whether in the north, south, east, or west, is completely unacceptable and is Iran's red line.