An Analytical Note on the Legal and Geopolitical Aspects of the Zangezur Corridor and Syunik Province, and Practical Mechanisms for Iran
The transfer of management and control over the Zangezur Corridor to a consortium led by the United States and NATO is not merely an economic project, but a geopolitical move with far-reaching security, economic, and sovereignty implications.
This initiative is, in effect, a continuation of the “Zangezur Corridor” plan first proposed more than three decades ago within the framework of policies aimed at isolating and containing Iran and Russia, and has now been redesigned with multiple objectives:
- Severing Iran’s land connection to Armenia and the Black Sea, thereby restricting alternative routes to the North–South Corridor.
- Establishing a forward NATO base in the South Caucasus, at the closest proximity to Iran’s northwestern borders.
- Geopolitically encircling Iran, Russia, and China along key transit and trade routes.
- Constraining India’s role in connecting to Eurasia via Iran.
- Redesigning the regional security balance in favor of the Western bloc.
Legal Dimensions of the Zangezur Corridor
The Zangezur Corridor project violates key international laws by undermining sovereignty, threatening security, breaching territorial integrity, invalid treaty principles, collective security commitments, and transit rights.
Operational and Security Implications for Iran
The Zangezur Corridor shifts power near Iran’s northwest border, threatens the North–South Corridor, establishes a NATO security belt from the Black to Caspian Sea, and risks a Ukraine-like conflict in the South Caucasus.
Iran’s Toolbox for Countering (Legal and Diplomatic Mechanisms)
Iran’s response includes forming a Tehran-Moscow-Beijing alliance, activating Iran-Armenia-Russia consultations, engaging India, filing legal protests at the UN, using the ICJ, leveraging regional transit laws, conducting joint military drills, boosting economic ties with Armenia, applying economic pressure, and using energy diplomacy to block NATO control of the corridor.
Iran’s Proposal for Investment in Alternative Transport Infrastructure to the Zangezur CorridorInternational Legal and Geopolitical Dimensions of the Zangezur Corridor
The Zangezur Corridor’s transfer to U.S. and NATO control threatens Iran’s security, requiring coordinated legal, diplomatic, economic, and security measures. Past NATO bases near Iran became pressure tools; Iran should block the plan through coalition-building and legal mechanisms.
This study was conducted by Morteza Abdi, head of Institute for Strategic Studies of International Law in 2025.
