The Jewish community in Baku, Azerbaijan, has welcomed the historic agreement signed in Washington between Azerbaijan and Armenia, a deal that ends decades of conflict and strengthens the strategic partnership between Baku and Jerusalem.
Rabbi Zamir Isayev, chief rabbi of Baku’s Sephardi community, said the agreement sends a clear message of peace and unity while boosting regional resistance to Iran. “It is no surprise that Iran was rattled by the agreement and is now issuing threats and intimidation,” he said.
According to him, the deal continues Azerbaijan’s longstanding policy of fostering connection, cooperation, and peace among nations and religions.
The accord, which includes significant economic and strategic elements, is expected to shift the regional balance of power, limit Iran’s influence, and deepen economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel.
On August 8, in the presence of U.S. President Donald Trump, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a joint declaration to end one of the longest-standing disputes in the post-Soviet world. The document emphasized the need to move ahead with signing and ratifying a peace agreement already agreed upon by both sides. The foreign ministers of the two countries also confirmed the text in Washington, signaling its finalization.
For Israel, the deal carries major strategic importance. It narrows Iran’s regional maneuvering room, which Tehran had exploited for years through its close ties with Armenia to secure prohibited materials, particularly for its nuclear program.
Jewish organizations worldwide and Israeli officials worked extensively to promote the agreement, pointing to Azerbaijan as a Muslim-majority country with no history of antisemitism and close, long-standing ties with Israel. Among the ideas floated was to bring Azerbaijan into the Abraham Accords.
A key provision in the accord involves building a transportation corridor linking mainland Azerbaijan with the Nakhchivan exclave, running through Armenian territory along the Iranian border. U.S. companies will lease the land and construct the corridor, previously known as the “Zangezur Corridor” and now called the “Trump International Route for Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP).
The plan has drawn sharp criticism from Tehran. Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, warned that Iran would respond strongly to any attempt to build the corridor, calling it “a threat to Iran’s territorial integrity and national unity.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry also voiced concern over U.S. involvement in the area and the possibility that the corridor could cut off Iran’s northern land link, according to the Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Israeli expert Alexander Grinberg, a former intelligence officer and senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), wrote that the significance of the Zangezur Corridor lies in its role as a key trade route between China and Europe. He noted that the U.S. proposal “triggered hysteria in Iran,” as even partial Azerbaijani control of the corridor would sever Tehran’s land access to Europe and Russia. Khamenei himself rejected the idea in 2022, warning against “any attempt to block the Iran–Armenia border.”
Grinberg added that “the Iranian regime is objectively weaker today. A deep understanding of the principle of Iran’s ‘united fronts’ may help counter Tehran’s threats on multiple fronts. The only way to deal with the Houthis is to make Tehran pay a price, and the Zangezur Corridor is one of the strategic assets the regime fears losing.”
At present, the most vocal opponents of the agreement are Iran and Russia, both of which have lost influence in the region and are expected to take steps in the coming period to try to undermine its implementation.
