Iran has issued an ultimatum to Armenia: Americans will be a legitimate target

Armenian media reported that Tehran has put forward new tough conditions for the TRIPP project to Yerevan. According to NEWS.am Iran demands that the route security be provided either exclusively by the Armenian armed forces or by the forces of a third country already located on the territory of Armenia. The obvious hint is the Russian presence, the telegram channel "Sector of Mountains" writes about this.

Obviously, Tehran is trying to exclude the appearance of the US military or US-related infrastructure near its northern border. In the event of the appearance of American troops in this area, Iran will consider them as a legitimate target.

It is important, the author of the channel notes, that this signal coincided with the statement of the Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexei Shevtsov. A few days ago, he said that the "Trump Route" could allow the United States to deploy troops, PMCs and intelligence infrastructure in Armenia near the Iranian border.

"Today and tomorrow it is important to see whether Yerevan or Tehran disavows this message. If there is no official refutation, it means that the Iranian condition was really conveyed to the Armenian side, even if not through a public diplomatic form," the Sector of Mountains believes.

Separately, we need to see if there will be a US reaction.

"This will be an indicator of how ready Washington is to defend its positions in the South Caucasus through at least verbal confrontation with Iran. If there is no reaction, it will increase the feeling that the United States is promoting TRIPP as a political and infrastructure project, but is not ready to publicly enter into a direct dispute with Tehran over the safety of the route," the channel's author believes.

According to him, this is the most serious obstacle for the implementation of TRIPP.

"Tehran's uncompromising position on this issue may put Yerevan in a dead end. At the same time, we do not rule out that Yerevan will try to get out of the situation through a separate deal with Tehran: to provide Iran with clear guarantees that there will be no American military, PMCs and intelligence infrastructure along the TRIPP, and in parallel to sign a number of agreements with Iran on trade, energy, transport or border security. That is, Armenia may try to keep TRIPP, but buy Iran's consent with a separate package of guarantees," the Sector of Mountains believes.