TEHRAN - The Republic of Azerbaijan has told Iranian officials that it has scrapped plans of constructing a corridor inside the Armenian soil, according to a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. 

During an interview with Iranian media, Ali Alizadeh declared that early this month Azerbaijan’s defense minister told a visiting Iranian military delegation that Baku has decided to resort to “plan B” after witnessing resistance from Yerevan.

Plan B consists of connecting mainland Azerbaijan to the Nakhjavan exclave via Iran. 

“We cannot completely trust that this would be Azerbaijan’s real plan, but this is what the country’s defense minister told Iranian officials earlier this month while quoting the president,” added Alizadeh. 

The MP explained that Azerbaijan pursued two main objectives in the Karabakh region: One was to disarm armed groups in the area and the other was to create transport links to Nakhjavan.

“Iran is averse to the proposed Zangezur corridor which if built, would alter Iran’s historic borders with Armenia. It was Tehran’s idea to connect the two regions in Azerbaijan’s territory via a road in Iran,” said the MP, adding that Baku has announced it is no longer thinking of starting a military conflict with Armenia now that it has the disputed Karabakh region under control. 

The Nagorno-Karabakh region, officially part of Azerbaijan but inhabited by Armenian citizens, has been a source of friction between Baku and Yerevan for more than three decades. 

Baku wrested control of a vast area in the region during a war in 2020. It claimed full control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region on September 20 after local Armenian forces there agreed to lay down their weapons following Azerbaijan’s latest military offensive. 

The so-called Zangezur Corridor proposed by Azerbaijan and Turkey, aiming to connect Nakhjavan and Karabakh, would pass through the Armenian Syunik province and disconnect Armenia and Iran. Both countries have announced firm objections to such plans.

Azerbaijan would have to launch a new military offensive this time against Armenia’s official borders to ensure the construction of such a corridor. 

MHA/PA