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Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Russia welcomes US-brokered Armenia-Azerbaijan deal, warns against foreign meddling
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a trilateral signing event with Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, at the White House, in Washington, D.C., August 8, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo MOSCOW - Russia on Saturday praised the U.S.-brokered peace accord between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but warned that outside intervention could complicate the situation in the South Caucasus. The agreement, signed on Friday during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, includes exclusive U.S. development rights to a transport corridor through Armenia, linking Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave bordering Turkey. In its first comments, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Moscow supported efforts to promote stability and prosperity in the region, including the Washington meeting, despite earlier statements from Baku and Yerevan favouring direct talks without mediators. The ministry said that lasting solutions should be developed by regional countries with support from neighbours like Russia, Iran, and Turkey. "The involvement of non-regional players should strengthen the peace agenda, not create new divisions," the ministry said, adding that it hoped to avoid the "unfortunate experience" of Western-led conflict resolution in the Middle East. REUTERS
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Trump-backed peace push leaves Azerbaijan and Armenia one step from final accord, top diplomat says
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox U.S. President Donald Trump, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pose with their documents during a trilateral signing event at the White House, in Washington, D.C., August 8, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo A peace push backed by U.S. President Donald Trump leaves Azerbaijan and Armenia just one step from a final peace deal and is a paradigm shift in the strategically important South Caucasus region, a top Azerbaijani diplomat said on Saturday. Trump welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the White House on Friday and witnessed their signing of a joint declaration aimed at drawing a line under their decades-long on-off conflict. Russia, a traditional broker and ally of Armenia in the strategically important South Caucasus region which is crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines, was not included despite its border guards being stationed on the border between Armenia and Iran. While Moscow said it supported the summit, it proposed "implementing solutions developed by the countries of the region themselves with the support of their immediate neighbours – Russia, Iran and Turkey" to avoid what it called the "sad experience" of Western efforts to mediate in the Middle East. Azerbaijan's close ally, NATO member Turkey, welcomed the accord. Russia-ally Iran also welcomed the agreement but warned against any foreign intervention near its borders. Baku and Yerevan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory's 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. "The chapter of enmity is closed and now we're moving towards lasting peace," said Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan's ambassador to Britain, predicting that the wider region's prosperity and transport links would be transformed for the better. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 4 men arrested after police search operation in forested area near Rail Corridor Singapore SAF regular serviceman dies after being found unconscious at Hendon Camp swimming pool: Mindef Singapore E-bike rider arrested for rash act causing hurt after accident with pedestrian in Toa Payoh Singapore Man arrested for allegedly stealing from business class passenger on flight to Singapore Singapore Driver taken to hospital after car hits lamp post in Orchard Road Singapore Urban farming, robots, AI exhibitions: Public invited to share ideas for new Science Centre World Three wounded in shooting in New York's Times Square Asia 2 Malaysian tourists critically injured after being set on fire in Bangkok "This is a paradigm shift," said Suleymanov, who as a former envoy to Washington who used to work in President Aliyev's office, is one of his country's most senior diplomats. Suleymanov declined to speculate on when a final peace deal would be signed however, noting that Aliyev had said he wanted it to happen soon. There remained only one obstacle, said Suleymanov, which was for Armenia to amend its constitution to remove a reference to Nagorno-Karabakh. "Azerbaijan is ready to sign any time once Armenia fulfils the very basic commitment of removing its territorial claim against Azerbaijan in its consitution," he said. MANY QUESTIONS UNANSWERED Pashinyan this year called for a referendum to change the constitution, but no date for it has been set yet. Armenia is to hold parliamentary elections in June 2026, and the new constitution is expected to be drafted before the vote. The Armenian leader said on X that the Washington summit would pave the way to end the decades of conflict and to open up transport connections in the region that he said would unlock strategic economic opportunities. Friday's agreement saw Armenia hand exclusive U.S. development rights to a strategic transit corridor through the South Caucasus that the White House said would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources. The proposed Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) which would run across southern Armenia, would give Azerbaijan a direct route to its exclave of Nackchivan and in turn to Turkey. Asked when the transit rail route would start running, Suleymanov said that would depend on cooperation between the U.S. and Armenia whom he said were already in talks. Joshua Kucera, Senior South Caucasus analyst at International Crisis Group, said the Washington summit was not the easy win that Trump may have hoped for as the agreements left many questions unanswered. The issue of Armenia's constitution continued to threaten to derail the process, and key questions about how the new transport corridor would work in practice had not been addressed. "Key details are missing, including about how customs checks and security will work and the nature of Armenia's reciprocal access to Azerbaijani territory. These could be serious stumbling blocks," said Kucera. Control of the corridor, which will be operated under Armenian law, is a sensitive issue, with Azerbaijan wary of Armenian law. Suleymanov played down suggestions that Russia, which still has extensive security and economic interests in Armenia, was being disadvantaged. "Anybody and everybody can benefit from this if they choose to," he said. REUTERS
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Iran will not allow Trump-backed corridor linking Azerbaijan to exclave, says Khamenei aide
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox (From left) Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, US President Donald Trump and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signing a peace deal at the White House on Aug 8. TEHRAN - Iran will not allow the creation under a US-brokered peace deal of a corridor near the Iranian border linking Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave, an adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Aug 9. The planned corridor - dubbed the 'Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity' - is a key part of a peace deal signed at the White House on Aug 8 between Azerbaijan and its longtime foe Armenia. However, the proposed route, in which the United States will have development rights, passes near the Iranian border and Ayatollah Khamenei's international affairs adviser, Mr Ali Akbar Velayati, said Iran would not accept it. 'With the implementation of this plot, the security of the South Caucasus will be endangered,' Mr Velayati told the Tasnim news agency, He said the planned corridor was 'an impossible notion and will not happen', while the area would become 'a graveyard for Trump's mercenaries'. Iran has long opposed the planned transit route, also known as the Zangezur corridor – fearing it would cut the country off from Armenia and the rest of the Caucasus, and bring a foreign presence to its border. 'We have the right to defend our interests in a completely powerful manner,' Mr Velayati said, adding that Iran had held multiple military exercises in the area to show its 'readiness'. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 4 men arrested after police search operation in forested area near Rail Corridor Singapore SAF regular serviceman dies after being found unconscious at Hendon Camp swimming pool: Mindef Singapore E-bike rider arrested for rash act causing hurt after accident with pedestrian in Toa Payoh Singapore Man arrested for allegedly stealing from business class passenger on flight to Singapore Singapore Driver taken to hospital after car hits lamp post in Orchard Road Singapore Urban farming, robots, AI exhibitions: Public invited to share ideas for new Science Centre World Three wounded in shooting in New York's Times Square Asia 2 Malaysian tourists critically injured after being set on fire in Bangkok Iran's foreign ministry welcomed 'the finalisation of the text of the peace agreement' between Armenia and Azerbaijan but expressed 'concern over the negative consequences of any foreign intervention in any way and form, especially in the vicinity of common borders'. It added that such a move would 'disrupt the security and lasting stability of the region.' Christian-majority Armenia and Muslim-majority Azerbaijan have feuded for decades over their border and the status of ethnic enclaves within each other's territories. They went to war twice over the disputed Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan recaptured from Armenian forces in a lightning 2023 offensive, sparking the exodus of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians. Asked what Armenia stood to gain from the Aug 8 deal, a White House official said it was 'an enormous strategic commercial partner, probably the most enormous and strategic in the history of the world: the United States of America'. 'The losers here are China, Russia and Iran,' he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. AFP
