By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

Would the Islamic Republic, whose legacy is firmly based on Islam and the indisputable historical inheritance of the Iranian people from the past millennia, remain a passive spectator to the dangerous meddling near its northwestern borders by a rank outside power, the US, which has a history of disturbing the peace and stability of regions around the world wherever it sets foot?

This is a million dollar question circulating amongst the patriotic and pious sectors of the Iranian society, following an audacious accord forced by the villain of the piece, Donald Trump, on heads of state of a seemingly helpless Armenia and an Azerbaijan Republic serving the vested interests of the avowed enemy of Islam and Muslims, the illegitimate Zionist entity.

According to analysts, if the Zangezur strip of Armenia’s Syunik Province were to become a US-NATO corridor linking the Azerbaijan Republic to the autonomous region of Nakhchivan, it would constitute an occupation of Armenian land and cut Armenia off from direct land access to its important southern trade partner, Iran.

Many wonder how such adverse developments occur in a region where the Azeri people living across the political borders of modern Iran regard themselves as followers of Prophet Muhammad’s (SAWA) Blessed Household, the Ahl al-Bayt, and are proud to be an inseparable part of Iranian culture, history, and society – along with the Armenians, though Christians, but linked to the heritage of Persia.

How come Zangezur, which along with the rest of the Caucasus where “Pax Persiana” prevailed for almost two thousand years in the face of incursions by the Romans, the Arabs, the Turks, and the Mongols till its occupation in 1813 AD by Tsarist Russia through the humiliating Treaty of Golestan forced upon the decadent and incompetent Qajar regime of Tehran, has turned into an American-Zionist enclave against the two century long interests of even Moscow itself!

Yes, Iran and the Iranians as well as the Armenian nationalists and the devout Azeri Muslims are fully resolved to abort the US-Israeli incursion into the region, no matter if some weak and unprincipled leaders plan to sell their countries to outsiders.

The most rational and decisive response in this regard was from by Dr. Ali Akbar Velayati, the doyen of Iranian diplomacy, who said “the southern Caucasus is important to Iran’s security and not a no man’s land for Donald Trump to lease as a real estate agent.”

He warned that “such a corridor will become a graveyard for Trump’s mercenaries, not a route owned by the US president.”

Dr. Velayati is currently the senior adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and for 16 long years had served as the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic from the crucial years of the 8-year US imposed Iraqi war to post-war progress in Iran when the cold war ended between Washington and Moscow with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He said about the supposed 99-year lease of Zangezur to the US: “The Caucasus is one of the world’s most sensitive regions. Iran has always opposed the creation of the Zangezur corridor, as it would alter the region’s geopolitics, redraw borders, and lead to Armenia’s disintegration; hence the Armenian people strongly oppose it.”

Saying Iran will prevent the creation of an American corridor in the Caucasus with or without Moscow, he pointed out that “the Zangezur corridor is not a mere trade route, but a political plot against Iran and other neighbouring states, since NATO would meddle in this region and lie between Iran and Russia like a viper.”

In view of these timely warnings, Iran which a decade earlier had flexed its military muscles on its northwest borders to abort a similar plot, has every right to take precautionary measures to keep away NATO since prevention is better than treatment – similar to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repeated warnings that Moscow will take action if Ukraine intends to join NATO.