President Donald Trump’s new deal in the South Caucasus has ended a decades-long conflict and handed Washington a rare strategic foothold on Iran’s northern border, experts say.
The agreement, signed earlier this month between Armenia and Azerbaijan, grants the U.S. a 99-year lease over the Zangezur Corridor – a narrow strip of land that will serve as a critical trade and energy route to Europe, bypassing Tehran entirely. Iranian American journalist and dissident Banafsheh Zand told Fox News Digital the move is “a wonderful gain for the U.S.” that also delivers a “slap in the face” to the regime in Tehran.
The corridor has long been at the center of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which displaced tens of thousands and fueled three decades of instability. Trump’s intervention brought both sides to the table and created what observers say is a new trade and security lifeline linking the Caspian Basin to Europe, bypassing Iran entirely.
Ben Taleblu added that Washington is now using these shifts to turn Iran’s weakness into opportunity. “Wherever the regime is weak, that invites pushback, whether militarily or economically,” he said. “The U.S. has followed Israel’s military success against the Islamic Republic with strikes of its own against nuclear facilities, and it is now following Azerbaijan’s battlefield success with a political and economic success of its own. This corridor is another example of America moving in when Tehran is most vulnerable.”
An aerial view of the construction of roads and railways that will pass through the Zangezur Corridor, which will connect the western provinces with Nakhchivan and will also be one of the routes of the Central Corridor extending from China to Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus and Turkey. (Photo by Resul Rehimov/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Zand, whose father was a well-known Iranian journalist and intellectual assassinated by the regime, said she views Trump’s direct involvement as the key to the corridor’s success. “Because it’s Trump, it makes all the difference,” she said. “Trump doesn’t care about not hurting people’s feelings. He responds to how people act. And with this move, he’s sitting over Iran like a vulture-ominous, watching, ready.”
For dissidents like Zand, the corridor represents more than a transport route. “We’ve prayed for this for decades,” she said. “Until the regime is gone, people inside Iran will remain too afraid to rise up again. But this corridor is a boon. It shows the regime is surrounded, and its days are numbered.”
The deal was reached with NATO backing and has already been compared by some observers to historic peace accords. Zand believes the significance lies not only in ending a 30-year conflict but also in turning the U.S. presence in the Caucasus into a permanent reality. “The regime knows the jig is up.”
