Trump concludes the agreement of the Southern Caucasus which cuts Iran from the key commercial corridor

President Donald Trump’s New Deal in the South Caucasus ended a conflict of several decades and gave Washington a rare strategic foot on the northern border of Iran, according to experts.

The agreement, signed earlier this month between Armenia and Azerbaijan, grants the United States a 99-year-old lease on the corridor of Zangezur-a narrow strip of land which will serve as a critical trade and energy route to Europe, completely bypassing Tehran. The American Iranian journalist and dissident Banafsheh Zand told Fox News Digital that the move is “a wonderful gain for the United States” which also offers a “slap in the face” to the diet in Tehran.

The corridor has long been in the center of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which has moved tens of thousands and has fueled three decades of instability. Trump’s intervention brought both sides to the table and created what observers say they are a new commercial and safety line connecting the Caspian basin to Europe, completely bypass Iran.

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan seek to alleviate the Russian and Iranian concerns after a peace agreement on the United States

A view of the southern border of Armenia reveals the Arax river, with Iran visible through water. This crossing is a vital rescue buoy for Armenia, facilitating essential commercial and energy flows, especially since tensions go up on the proposed Zangezur corridor. Iran firmly opposes the corridor, fearing to break its direct access to land to Armenia and to reduce its role as a regional transit center. The corridor, intended to link Azerbaijan to its exclave from Nakhchivan through Armenian territory, has become a flash point in regional geopolitics. (Images Anthony PizzoFerrato / Middle East / AFP via Getty Images)

Known as Trump Route For Peace & Prosperity (Tripp), economically, the agreement provides Washington with a direct role in supervision of the flow of Caspian hydrocarbons in Europe. The United States will manage rail and road infrastructure, telecommunications networks and energy pipelines crossing the corridor, giving American companies a dominant position in the regional transit for oil, gas and goods. By controlling this artery, the United States not only generates billions of businesses and future investments, but also lock Europe towards alternative supply routes which reduce dependence on both Russia and Iran.

For allies, the corridor offers cheaper and safer access to Caspian energy. For Tehran, he represents lost income, the lost lever and the end of his ability to act as a compulsory goalkeeper for the East-West trade.

Zand said that the agreement is not only historic but also a direct victory for Washington. “It’s a wonderful gain for the United States,” she said. “American entrepreneurs will supervise oil and gas from the Caspian basin, transported through Zangezur and Turkey to Europe. The beneficiary margins are excellent, and everything happens under the blessing of NATO.”

Zand said the potential was going even further. “No one is talking about it yet, but I don’t think it’s out of the way to see us there,” she said. “If this happens, then check the Khamenei regime and Russia.”

Trump does the peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan

US President Donald Trump (C), President in Azerbaijani Ilham Aliyev (L) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan displayed the agreement they signed in the White House dining room in Washington, DC on August 8, 2025. that he had welcomed a white summit with the South Cance of South. The nations, which have been fighting for decades. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)

For Iran, the corridor represents what Zand called a nightmare scenario. Tehran has long used its geography to shape energy and negotiation flows. By inserting the United States into the region, the New Deal effectively strips Iran of this leverage. Zand said it in terms: “Iran has the shape of a cat, a cat seated. This corridor literally runs above the cat’s ears. He goes around Iran, takes money away from the diet and pushes them in the cold.”

Behnam Ben Taleblu, principal director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Iran Program, said that the corridor exposes to what extent Iran has become vulnerable in the Caucasus. “The defeat of Armenia in the most recent war with Azerbaijan, as well as the political problems between Moscow and Yerevan today, have made more difficult for the Islamic Republic to really benefit from its traditional economic and political relations with Armenia,” he told Fox News Digital.

An infographic entitled “The construction of roads and railways extending to the corridor of Zangezur continues without interruption”. Once built, the corridor will connect the western provinces of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan via Armenia, still extending to China, Central Asia, in the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus and Turkey. (Yasin Deirci / Anadolu via Getty Images)

“They always have links, and the regime is an opportunistic actor as much as ideological. If there is a means of throwing stones from this agreement, or extracting concessions on their backs, they will try.”

At the same time, he said that the strategic image was clear. “The Islamic Republic is, in substance, carved on this path,” he said. “It is not only a critical corridor that could bring stability to the Southern Caucasus and the economic improvement of all the countries involved – this also makes me the fact that the regime was such a bad tutor of Iran’s national interest that the Iranian state has been excluded from a major transit route just above its border.”

The supreme chief of Iran, Ali Khamenei, addresses the media during the vote for the parliamentary elections in Tehran, Iran, in May 2024. (Photo of Fatemeh Bahrami / Anadolu via Getty Images)

The timing, argued Zand, makes the impact even greater. She highlighted the position of weakening Iran since October 7, 2023 and the recent War of the 12 days of Israel with Tehran. “The regime was self-isolated when it could not come to the rescue of Hamas or Hezbollah. The Iraqi Shiites say that they do not want to be controlled, Syria has come out and Hezbollah was degraded. For those of us who watched it for decades, we have always known that it was a paper tiger. October 7 and the war exposed it to the world.”

The murder of senior commanders of the IRGC and nuclear scientists has deepened the feeling of vulnerability within Tehran. “They can blow and breathe to blow up the house, but the truth is that there is a lot of fear among the regime leaders now,” said Zand. “Khamenei even started to hide again.”

Trump brings peace to the Caucasus: inside Armenia – Azerbaijan Deal 30 years in preparation

Ben Taleblu added that Washington now uses these changes to transform Iran’s weakness into opportunity. “Wherever the regime is low, which invites decline, whether militarily or economically,” he said. “The United States has followed the military success of Israel against the Islamic Republic with clean strikes against nuclear installations, and it now follows the success of the Azerbaijan battlefield with political and economic success.

An aerial view of the construction of roads and railways which will pass in the corridor of Zangezur, which will connect the Western provinces to Nakhchivan and will also be one of the tracks of the central corridor extending from China to Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus and Turkey. (Photo of Resul Rehimov / Anadolu via Getty Images)

Zand, whose father was a well -known Iranian journalist and murderous intellectual by the regime, said that she considered Trump’s direct involvement as the key to the success of the corridor. “Because it’s Trump, that makes all the difference,” she said. “Trump does not care not to harm people’s feelings. He responds to the way people act. And with this decision, he sits on Iran like a vulture, Omining, Working, ready.”

For dissidents like Zand, the corridor represents more than a transport route. “We have prayed for this for decades,” she said. “Until the regime is gone, people inside Iran will be too afraid to get up. But this corridor is a boon. It shows that the regime is surrounded, and its days are counted.”

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The agreement was concluded with the support of NATO and has already been compared by certain observers to the historic peace agreements. Zand believes that the importance lies not only in the end of a 30 -year conflict, but also by transforming the American presence in the Caucasus in reality permanent. “The regime knows that the size is in place.”