Azerbaijan Shifts Focus To Iran For Land Corridor Amid Armenia Impasse
Azerbaijan Republic has redirected its efforts away from seeking a land corridor through Armenia to connect with the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan.
Azerbaijan Republic has redirected its efforts away from seeking a land corridor through Armenia to connect with the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan.
Instead, the nation is now exploring discussions with its southern neighbor, Iran, as disclosed by a senior Azerbaijani official on Wednesday.
Hikmet Hajiyev, a top foreign policy advisor to President Aliyev, told Reuters that "Azerbaijan had no plans to seize Zangezur," referring to the proposed corridor aimed at connecting mainland Azerbaijan to the Nakhichevan enclave, which shares a border with Turkey, a close ally of Baku.
He explained, "After the two sides failed to agree on its opening, the project has lost its attractiveness for us — we can do this with Iran instead."
Armenia strongly opposed the notion of such a corridor, apprehensive that it might lead to additional territorial concessions following Azerbaijan's swift military campaign resulting in the seizure of the long contested Nagorno-Karabakh region in September.
Although internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, Karabakh had been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, prompting the mass displacement of approximately 120,000 ethnic Armenians into Armenia.
Azerbaijan had recently urged the inclusion of its long-standing request for a transport corridor through southern Armenia in the ongoing peace treaty negotiations.
Iran’s defense ministry earlier warned that it will not tolerate any changes to international borders in the region.
During a Wednesday press conference, US President Joe Biden warned Iran against further attacks on US troops in the region after rising incidents in the last week. “My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared,” he warned.
Since Iran-backed Hamas declared war on Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 and taking at least 220 hostages back into Gaza, Tehran's other proxy militias have intensified attacks on bases hosting American troops deployed in the region since 9/11. Hezbollah has increased its attacks on Israel’s northern border while proxies in Yemen and Syria have also fired missiles towards Israel.
At least 24 US troops have been injured during 10 drone or rocket attacks on bases in Iraq and three in Syria over the past week.
Biden said his warning to Iran “has nothing to do with Israel,” but it echoes similar statements by Washington that on several occasions warned Tehran to “be careful” not to do anything that leads to expanding the conflict into a larger Middle East war.
The US embassy in Kuwait has also received threats from an Iranian proxy, and downgraded all its operations to those which are deemed essential.
The political deputy in Iran’s presidential office, Mohammad Jamshidi, said in what IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency described as a reaction to Biden’s remarks, “The US messages were neither directed to the leader of the Islamic Revolution nor were they anything but requests from the Iranian side. If Biden thinks he has warned Iran, he should ask his team to show him the text of the messages.”
Earlier in the week, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the United States sent at least two "urgent messages" to Tehran about the simmering tensions in the Middle East. According to Amwaj Media, a media outlet with links to the regime's close circles, Washington has also communicated a potential shift in its stance regarding Iranian assets held in Qatari banks and postponed talks on nuclear issues. The message was allegedly delivered by Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to Doha on October 13.
In a bid to slam the support given to Israel by the likes of the US and EU leaders, who have given their unequivocal support for its response to an attack which was the single most deadly day for Jews since the Holocaust, Hossein Salami, the Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Guards, said visits by US and European officials to Israel are aimed at “resuscitation to delay the inevitable death of the Zionist regime,” a term it uses for Israel.
Salami also warned against an Israeli ground invasion which the IDF today revealed had begun in small measure with a precise infiltration overnight. He warned, “If they move on the ground, the dragon of Gaza will devour them," suggesting the might of the regime's support will be initiated in full force.
Footage released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Thursday showed forces under the command of the Givati Brigade on Wednesday night carried out a targeted raid using tanks in the northern Gaza Strip, as part of the preparation of the area for the next stages of combat.
As part of the operation, the forces located and attacked many terrorists, destroyed terrorist infrastructures, anti-tank positions and carried out work to organize the area, the IDF said. The troops left the area at the end of the mission.
