For Iran, the roads passing through Armenia and Azerbaijan within the North-South corridor have different meanings.
Publika.az It is reported that Godratullah Shafieh, an expert of the Institute of Eurasian Studies, said this in a conversation with the reporter of “NEWS.am”.
He explained that in the case of Azerbaijan, we are talking about access to Russia, and through Armenia and Georgia to Europe. Therefore, these two paths have completely different meanings for Iran.
“Tehran is trying to provide access to Russia through Azerbaijan and to Europe through Armenia,” the expert added.
“This is what India wants, it also wants to gain access to Europe through Iran, then Armenia and Georgia,” Shafihe reminded.
“It is not yet known when the road through Azerbaijan will be opened, it may take years, because within the framework of this project it is necessary to build a railway about 100 km long in Iran itself,” the expert said.
At the same time, he believes that the fact that the route to the north is only through the territory of Azerbaijan is fraught with risks for Tehran, because Azerbaijan can use its transit role as leverage, if it wants to, block the road and create problems for Iran:
“However, in case of such provocations by Azerbaijan, Iran has alternative routes to Russia either through the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan, or Kazakhstan, which are already working.
But in this sense, the road through Armenia is more important for Iran, because it is the road to Europe.”
Shafie noted the importance of Europeans themselves being interested in the India-Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Europe route.
“The Europeans should also work on the creation of this corridor, and if they do not want to work with Iran due to American sanctions, this corridor will be useless,” the expert concluded.
#insidious #intention #Iran #clear