Armenia's parliamentary approval of the Trump Route, a US-run transit corridor running along Iran's northern border, has set off alarm in Tehran, with officials and state media warning it would bring an American presence to Iran's doorstep, Iran International reports.
The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) would link Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenia's southern Syunik province, which borders Iran. It grew out of the peace framework President Trump brokered between Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's Nikol Pashinyan at the White House in August 2025. Armenia's parliament approved the agreement on Oct. 28.
Under the deal, Washington and Yerevan set up a joint company, TRIPP Development, with the US holding 74% and Armenia 26%, for an initial 49 years.
Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, attacked Pashinyan in the Ettela'at newspaper on Nov. 5 and said he had warned Armenia's ambassador directly: "If Trump and his allies seek to cross this red line of Iran, we will break their legs." He said Iranian commanders held a large exercise in the region to show Iran's "power and determination."
The state-run Mehr news agency said Nov. 9 that Tehran "must prevent implementation" of the corridor, and the state broadcaster's newspaper called a US-controlled structure in Syunik "unacceptable."
Armenia's Security Council secretary, Armen Grigoryan, answered that the project does not involve "a single armed soldier" and that no neighbor, Iran included, should see an economic project as a threat.
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