The United States Offers to Lease Syunik corridor for 100 Years

The United States has offered to lease a road in the Armenia’s Syunik Province that would connect Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan for 100 years and manage the flow of traffic, according to U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack.

Barrack’s comments can be seen as the first official confirmation that the Trump Administration wants an American company to control the road—the same 32-kilometer stretch of Armenian territory that Baku has been demanding to create the so-called “Zangezur Corridor.”

“They are arguing over 32 kilometers of road, but this is no trivial matter. It has dragged on for a decade—32 kilometers of road,” Barrack told journalists during a briefing hosted in New York on Friday.

“So what happens is that America steps in and says: ‘Okay, we’ll take it over. Give us the 32 kilometers of road on a hundred-year lease, and you can all share it’.”

Reports of the Trump Administration discussing this option were first published earlier this month in an article in the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

“The Trump administration—eager to showcase its global conflict resolution efforts—has reportedly floated a new plan… grounded in American strategic logic: U.S. business participation as a stabilizing force,” the Carnegie article reported, adding that the U.S. “may lean on Yerevan to accept the U.S. model, even if doing so delays the final peace and leaves the borders formally closed.”

Turkey originally proposed the idea of a private company, approved by both Armenia and Azerbaijan, to manage the corridor, according to a report Monday in the Middle East Eye.


“However, the Armenian side demanded that the company should also work on the Nakhchivan side of the corridor, which was unacceptable for Baku,” an anonymous source told the Middle East Eye.

Yerevan responded by saying that such a proposal is not—and has not—been discussed.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s spokesperson Nazerli Baghdassaryan told Armenpress on Monday that such a proposal “is not acceptable to the Republic of Armenia.”

“We have repeatedly stated that Armenia is discussing the issue of unblocking regional infrastructure exclusively within the framework of its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and jurisdiction. We cannot consider any other logic,” Baghdassaryan added.

“The Republic of Armenia has not discussed, and is not discussing, the outsourcing of control over its sovereign territory to any third party. No part of the territory of the Republic of Armenia can be outside the country’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and jurisdiction,” Baghdassaryan emphasized.

Pashinyan last week met with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan in Abu Dhabi, where the two reportedly discussed the so-called “corridor” issue.

Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakan Safaryan told Azatutyun.am on Wednesday that Yerevan does not oppose “outsourcing” certain functions to a licensed international company.

Safaryan confirmed that outsourcing such functions is a subject of discussion for Armenia but emphasized that it must comply with the principles Armenia has repeatedly stated.

“That process must be implemented under Armenia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and jurisdiction,” Safaryan said.

When asked about U.S. proposals to Armenia and Azerbaijan regarding opening of transport routes, Safaryan noted that various countries have made proposals which are currently under discussion. He declined to name them.

“Several such proposals are under discussion. They could be considered if they align with Armenia’s interests and with the principles Armenia has announced as part of Crossroads of Peace,” Safaryan said.