"Hraparak" writes:
The US Chargé d'Affaires in Armenia David Allen visited Baku the day before and "discussed with the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry the implementation of TRIPP and the creation of a management company to oversee the construction of infrastructure along the route." This news has become the main topic of internal government discussions in recent days. Concerned people in the ruling team are trying to understand what the American and Azerbaijani officials discussed, and which country will create the mentioned "management company." Official Yerevan did not respond to the news spread by the Baku Foreign Ministry, did not clarify what company they were talking about, and what they could discuss bilaterally without Armenia, when Armenia is also a party to the TRIPP agreement, the road passes through Armenia, so Armenia should at least participate in any discussion. Behind the scenes, political speculation is being put forward that the US may have decided to sell its share under the agreement to a third party, for example, Azerbaijan, and perhaps that is the reason for the bilateral negotiations. Yesterday, the Chairman of the NA Foreign Relations Committee, CP member Sargis Khandanyan, assured us that such a thing cannot happen; the US cannot sell its share under the same agreement without Armenia's consent.
In fact, it is clear that obtaining this agreement is a matter of minutes - Aliyev can squeeze anything out of Pashinyan with another pressure. In that case, what could the parties discuss and why without Armenia? Khandanyan does not find this strange. “Everyone is talking about TRIPP, from China to Portugal. Along this route, the Republic of Azerbaijan will be connected to the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, so it is clear, right, why Azerbaijan is interested.” Khandanyan urges not to give in to conspiracy theories. Let us recall that Aliyev and Pashinyan recently announced that since the construction of railways and other infrastructure along the TRIPP route may take a long time, it was decided to give priority to the construction of power lines. Aliyev said that their specialists have already visited Trump’s route and marked the places for installing power poles. Armenia confirmed this. And the second version of the fragmentary news about David Allen's visit is that the US temporary ambassador may have gone to Baku to discuss issues of ensuring the safety of Azerbaijani specialists and workers, namely the creation of a "management company to oversee the construction of infrastructure along the route."
Baku previously stated that they should not see an Armenian face on the road, Iran has repeatedly warned that if American forces appear in Armenia on the border with Iran, they will become a legal target for Iran. And Iran has almost presented an ultimatum to Armenia. The TRIPP road should be protected either by Armenian forces or by forces of third countries already present in the region, presumably Russia. Recently, Putin has been doing this very “bargaining” with Pashinyan to have representation in TRIPP.
However, our sources say that the option of Russian representation is unlikely, if not impossible, so we should wait for the clarifications of the Azerbaijani side to understand what the parties actually discussed and who will protect the Azerbaijani specialists in Armenia.
