Tehran’s outspoken resistance to the Zangazur Corridor, a planned transport link connecting mainland Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave via Armenia, has once again made headlines. Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, recently claimed that Iran “thwarted” the corridor’s implementation, portraying the move as a major diplomatic victory over regional encirclement and Western interference.

But what lies behind Iran’s growing anxiety over this project? At first glance, Iran’s opposition appears to be grounded in classic geopolitical concerns: the fear of isolation, NATO expansion, and a shift in regional power balances. However, a closer look reveals a more complex picture, one in which economic insecurity, transit dependency, and strategic rivalry with Türkiye all converge. Iran’s core claim is that the Zangazur Corridor threatens to block its direct land connection to Armenia and, by extension, its potential access to European markets. Iranian authorities see this project, backed by Azerbaijan and Türkiye, as a geoeconomic bypass that would reduce Iran’s role in regional transit and trade. According to Velayati, even U.S. President Joe Biden acknowledged that the corridor was nearly ready, and........

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