A senior Azerbaijani official announced on Wednesday that Azerbaijan has abandoned its pursuit of securing a land corridor through Armenia to connect with the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan. Instead, the country intends to explore the possibility of such a corridor through its southern neighbor, Iran.

This shift in strategy, involving a corridor through Iran, holds the potential to alleviate tensions in southern Armenia, an area Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has previously identified as historically Azeri land.

Hikmet Hajiyev, a top foreign policy adviser to President Aliyev, clarified Azerbaijan's stance, stating, "Azerbaijan had no plans to seize Zangezur," referring to the proposed corridor that would establish a connection between mainland Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan enclave, situated alongside Turkey, one of Baku's close allies. He further elaborated, "After the two sides failed to agree on its opening, the project has lost its attractiveness for us — we can do this with Iran instead."

Armenia had strongly opposed the idea of such a corridor, primarily due to concerns that it would necessitate further territorial concessions following Azerbaijan's lightning offensive, during which it seized the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in September.