Iran warns of opening Zangezur corridor, says redrawing new borders 'red-line' for Tehran

Iran once again reiterated its strong opposition to changing internationally-accepted political borders.

News ID: 5075

Date: 06 September 2024 - 11:34

TABNAK, Sep, 06: “Any treats against territorial integrity of our neighbors or redrawing new borders either in south, north, east or west is completely inacceptable and means a red-line for Iran,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on X.

‘Peace, security and stability in the region is not only a priority, but a pillar to our national security.” He added.

His remarks came after some Russian officials have recently supported Azerbaijan and Turkey in opening proposed Zangezur corridor.

The so-called proposed Zangezur land corridor seek to link the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, which borders Turkey, to the main territory of the country.

Iran has already assured Armenia that the Islamic Republic as a powerful neighbor opposes any alteration to the regional boundaries and is ready to play an effective role to avert regional conflicts or geopolitical changes.

Azerbaijan has been trying to link mainland Azerbaijan with the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic through the Armenia province of Syunik.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been at the center of a bloody conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan for decades. Internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, it had been home to an ethnic Armenian population for centuries. As the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s into the early 1990s, Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenians tried to break away from Azerbaijan, declaring independence.

A bloody war, in which Armenia aided the separatists, saw hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians also driven out of the region and ended with ethnic Armenians controlling most of Nagorno-Karabakh with their own unrecognized state.

But Azerbaijan reopened the conflict in 2020, starting a full-scale war that decisively defeated Armenia and ended with a truce deal brokered by Russia, which deployed peacekeepers to enforce it.