Azerbaijan, Armenia agree on 80 pct of peace deal: Aliyev

ROME

Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev announced that Baku and Yerevan have reached consensus on approximately 80 percent of the draft peace agreement in the ongoing negotiations.

"We can establish peace in the South Caucasus. When we assess the current peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia, we see that this is within reach," Aliyev stated during a speech at a forum in Italy on Sept. 6.

"Agreement has been reached on about 80 percent of the text of the peace treaty. We hope the negotiations will culminate in the signing of a peace accord," he said.

Last week, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan proposed formalizing a peace treaty based on the agreed-upon points, with the unresolved issues to be discussed at a later stage.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a protracted dispute for decades over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region and certain border demarcations, a conflict that has seen two wars and a military operation. Following a one-day military operation last year, which concluded with Azerbaijan’s victory, the two nations entered a peace process.

Iran raises concerns over Zangezur

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi expressed his opposition over the Zangezur Corridor project, which aims to connect the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic to other regions of Azerbaijan.

In a statement on social media, Araghchi underscored that any alteration of borders with neighboring countries constitutes a "red line" for Iran and is "entirely unacceptable."

His remarks followed Russia’s advocacy for maintaining open channels of communication regarding efforts to secure a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia and the establishment of a land corridor.

From the outset, Tehran has opposed the project, citing its aversion to "geopolitical shifts" in the Caucasus.
Iran harbors concerns that the corridor could sever Armenia’s direct land access, which is seen as a significant geopolitical implication.