Iran warns Armenia

Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader on international affairs, has issued a warning to Armenia.

TodayPress TV reports, citing APA, that Velayati made the remarks in an article published in the newspaper Ettelaat under the headline “An open and frank appeal to the Prime Minister of Armenia”.

Commenting on the Armenian parliament’s approval of the “Trump Route” (TRIPP), Velayati criticised Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s policies, describing the project’s ratification as a futile move that runs counter to the interests of the Armenian people.

He stressed that Iran considers the protection of security in the South Caucasus its responsibility, with or without Russia’s involvement.

Velayati said that one of the harmful steps taken by the new government led by Nikol Pashinyan had been to further deepen hostility between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

According to the Iranian official, Armenia’s relations with Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey and potentially Georgia in the future remain unstable and unpredictable. He recalled meetings held five years ago in Tehran between Iran’s then-Supreme Leader, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of an Astana-format summit. Velayati said that the creation of the Zangezur Corridor had been explicitly opposed at that meeting, stressing that this position was one of the “red lines” of Iran’s foreign policy.

Velayati added that Armenia would be making a potentially serious miscalculation if it assumed that Russia would pay less attention to South Caucasus security because of its involvement in the war in Ukraine. He said he had discussed the issue in separate meetings with Armenia’s deputy foreign minister and its ambassador to Tehran. He also recalled openly stating at a press conference that Iran was responsible for the region’s security, with or without Russia’s participation.

“I also told the Armenian ambassador my final word: if Trump and his allies try to cross this ‘red line’ of Iran’s, we will break their legs,” Velayati wrote, recounting what he had told Armenia’s ambassador to Tehran.

Velayati also criticised the Armenian government for increasingly aligning itself with the policies of the United States, France and the United Kingdom, warning that this approach could pave the way for heightened tensions in the South Caucasus.