Iran, Azerbaijan agree to activate South Araz corridor in near future

Iran and Azerbaijan have agreed to activate the South Araz corridor in the near future, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said.

He made the remarks, talking to journalists on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku, Trend reports.

"This will give an impetus to Iranian-Azerbaijani relations in the sphere of communications. We can say that this corridor will play a very important role in connecting the main part of Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan. We had very extensive discussions with President Ilham Aliyev about opening communications in the region," he said.

He also noted that Iran believes that all the problems in the South Caucasus can be solved peacefully and through negotiations.

"We can say that the peoples of Iran and Azerbaijan have the greatest common denominator in the region. We can restore common ties between our countries and peoples by eliminating misunderstandings. We believe that we will restore high-level ties between Iran and Azerbaijan," the minister said.

Abdollahian also expressed that Iran was outraged by the attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran and regrets the incident.

The minister, in particular, said: "We have agreed with Azerbaijan that we will soon complete the process related to this incident. The person who committed this crime will be brought to justice and will be severely punished. We believe that Azerbaijan's security is our security as well as that of the region."

The Iranian foreign minister added that if any responsible structure or person does not provide enough security to the diplomatic corps and it is proved, they will also be punished.

In 2022, Azerbaijan and Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the creation of a new transport artery in Iran's territory, connecting the Eastern-Zangazur economic region of Azerbaijan and another part of Azerbaijan - Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

According to the document, a new corridor will be laid through the territory of Iran about 5 km south of the Armenian-Iranian border which will consist of a railway line, a multi-lane highway, power transmission lines, digital communications, etc, connecting East Zangazur and Nakhchivan.

The new corridor will actually duplicate the Zangazur corridor envisaged by clause 9 of the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020.