Azerbaijan allocates funds for construction of road to Iran
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on measures related to the continuation of work on the construction of a new road from the Horadiz-Jabrayil-Zangilan-Aghband highway to Iran and a bridge over the Aras River.
In general, 14 million manat ($8.2 million) will be allocated from the reserve fund of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan — provided for in the state budget of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2023 — to the State Agency of Azerbaijan Automobile Roads in order to continue the construction projects, azernews.az reported.
The Ministry of Finance of Azerbaijan was instructed to provide financing in the amount specified in part one of this decree.
In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan was instructed to resolve issues that may arise from this decree.
On October 25, a senior Azerbaijani official said that his country is no longer interested in securing a land corridor through Armenia to the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan and will instead discuss the issue with its southern neighbor Iran.
Routing a potential corridor through Iran, which borders both Armenia and Azerbaijan, could help reduce tensions around southern Armenia.
“Azerbaijan had no plans to seize Zangezur,” Hikmet Hajiyev, a top foreign policy adviser to Aliyev, told Reuters, referring to the corridor that would link Azerbaijan proper to its enclave of Nakhichevan.
“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,” he said.
A groundbreaking ceremony marked on October 6, the beginning of construction for a road bridge and border-customs infrastructure near Aghband settlement in Azerbaijan's Zangilan district.
This momentous project is being undertaken as part of the memorandum of understanding "Between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the establishment of new communication ties between the East Zangazur region and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic through the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran," the Azerbaijani news agency APA said.
Several high-ranking officials from both countries attended the ceremony, including Azerbaijan's Deputy Prime Minister and Co-chair of the State Commission on Cooperation in the economic, trade, and humanitarian fields between Azerbaijan and Iran, Shahin Mustafayev, and Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban Developments and Co-chair of the Commission on behalf of Iran, Mehrdad Bazrpash.