TEHRAN - Iranian Deputy Transport and Urban Development Minister Kheirollah Khademi has announced an agreement between Iran and Armenia for establishing new transit routes, IRNA reported.

“The alternative transit route for Iranian trucks in Armenia will be asphalted within the next month, and there will be no need to use the previous route which passes through Azerbaijan and requires us to pay tolls to the country,” Khademi said.

Earlier this week, Khademi visited Armenia on top of a delegation for discussing solutions to resolve recent transit problems posed by Azerbaijan along a 20-kilometer section of Armenia’s Goris-Kapan Road stretching from Norduz (in Iran) to Yerevan.

“Positive meetings were held with Armenian officials, including the Minister of Infrastructure and his deputies. In order to determine a new route for Iranian trucks; good solutions were also suggested with a specific schedule to solve the problem,” the official stated.

The northern part of the route (from Yerevan to Georgia) has been completed by Armenia and the southern part toward the Norduz border in Iran is remaining which the two sides agreed to launch the construction operations. 

According to Khademi, Armenia's long-term plan is to build section 4 of this global corridor, and Iran has announced its readiness for its consultants and contractors to participate in the implementation of this project.

Azerbaijan is controlling and claiming ownership for approximately 20 km out of a 400 km route from Norduz to Yerevan. Since last month, Azerbaijan has imposed strict regulations on Iranian drivers which are posing major problems for them passing through the 20-kilometer section of Armenia’s Goris-Kapan Road including paying tolls levied by Azerbaijani border guards.

Iran and Armenia are seeking ways to bypass Azerbaijan for their traffic.

The Goris-Kapan Road is the main traffic route in southern Armenia. Since the end of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, a 20-kilometer section of the road has been under Azerbaijani control. But since early 2021 it has set up border guard posts on their sections of the road, thereby disrupting the traffic along the route.

EF/MA