Is the Zangezur Corridor under the control of an international company?

At the last meeting of the foreign ministers in early July in Washington, Armenia and Azerbaijan discussed the possibility of transferring control over future communications to an international private security company, Armenian political scientist Sergey Melkonyan at a conference in Yerevan. According to him, an international private company should control communications both in Armenia and in Nakhchivan and Azerbaijan. This also means border and customs control.

According to Melkonyan, Tehran sees such a development as a threat to its interests in the region. Recall that during the recent meeting of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with Iranian spiritual leader Ali Hamnei in Tehran, the latter openly stated that the Zangezur corridor was not in Armenia's interests. Such a frank statement by the Iranian leader means that Armenia is close to accepting the idea of transferring communications under the control of an international company, which clearly does not suit Tehran.

Given that the idea of inter-national control over the Zangezur corridor was discussed in Washington, it can be assumed that the West developed and proposed to the parties the idea of the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, from May 2023, to involve the International Customs Organization in the management of the Zangezur corridor.

Apparently, this issue was one of those discussed this week in Baku and Tehran by the head of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Shoigu. An indirect confirmation of this is the phrase Shoigu said after the meeting with Ilham Aliyev that "the West should not be allowed into the South Caucasus."

Meanwhile, no one has disclosed information about the format, composition and powers of this international company. In any case, this will become an alternative to the border forces of the FSB of Russia, which were supposed to take control of this road under a trilateral agreement dated November 9-10, 2020.