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TEHRAN/TBILISI: Iran stepped up warnings to Armenia on Monday over a planned US-backed corridor linking Azerbaijan to an exclave near the Iranian border, part of a recent peace deal between Yerevan and Baku.

In a phone call with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian “warned against possible actions by the United States, which could pursue hegemonic goals in the Caucasus region under the guise of economic investments and peace guarantees”, according to a statement from Tehran.

The land corridor dubbed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” is part of a deal signed last week in Washington between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Under the deal, the United States will have the development rights of the proposed route, which would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave, passing near the Iranian border.

Yerevan, Baku publish text of Trump-brokered peace deal

Iran has long opposed the planned transit route, also known as the Zangezur corridor, fearing it would cut the country off from Armenia and the rest of the Caucasus, and bring potentially hostile foreign forces to near its borders.

Pezeshkian said Iran “welcomes any agreement that promotes the strengthening of peace” among its neighbours, but emphasised the need to prevent the “interference of any military or security force” in implementing the corridor project, according to the statement from his office.

Armenia’s deputy foreign minister is due in Tehran on Tuesday for talks on the issue, Tehran has said. On Saturday, a senior advisor to Iran’s supreme leader said Tehran will not allow the creation of the planned corridor, warning that the area would become “a graveyard for Trump’s mercenaries”.

Text of deal

Armenia and Azerbaijan published the text of a US-brokered peace agreement on Monday, pledging to respect each other’s territorial integrity and formally put an end to nearly four decades of conflict.

The deal was struck in Washington on Friday, when Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met President Donald Trump at the White House.

The text of the greement, which was initialled by the countries’ foreign ministers, says Yerevan and Baku will relinquish all claims to each other’s territory, refrain from using force against one another and pledge to respect international law.

“This agreement is a solid foundation for establishing a reliable and lasting peace, the result of an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan that reflects the balanced interests of the two countries,” Pashinyan wrote on Facebook.

Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbours in the South Caucasus region, have been locked in conflict since the late 1980s over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region at the southern end of the Karabakh mountain range, within Azerbaijan. Baku took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.

The European Union, Nato member Turkiye and Russia have welcomed the accord, although Moscow, a traditional broker and ally of Armenia, was left out and warned against foreign meddling.

The deal explicitly bans the deployment of third-party forces along the countries’ shared border, a possible reference to Russia, which has previously deployed peacekeepers to the region and still has extensive military and security interests in Armenia. The European Union also has a mission deployed at the border to monitor ceasefire violations, which Baku has repeatedly demanded it withdraw.

The peace deal has not yet been signed by the two rivals, who both gained their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In a major hurdle to peace, Azerbaijan is demanding that Armenia change its constitution, which Baku says makes an implicit claim on Azerbaijani territory.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2025

TEHRAN/TBILISI: Iran stepped up warnings to Armenia on Monday over a planned US-backed corridor linking Azerbaijan to an exclave near the Iranian border, part of a recent peace deal between Yerevan and Baku.

In a phone call with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian “warned against possible actions by the United States, which could pursue hegemonic goals in the Caucasus region under the guise of economic investments and peace guarantees”, according to a statement from Tehran.

The land corridor dubbed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” is part of a deal signed last week in Washington between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Under the deal, the United States will have the development rights of the proposed route, which would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave, passing near the Iranian border.

Yerevan, Baku publish text of Trump-brokered peace deal

Iran has long opposed the planned transit route, also known as the Zangezur corridor, fearing it would cut the country off from Armenia and the rest of the Caucasus, and bring potentially hostile foreign forces to near its borders.

Pezeshkian said Iran “welcomes any agreement that promotes the strengthening of peace” among its neighbours, but emphasised the need to prevent the “interference of any military or security force” in implementing the corridor project, according to the statement from his office.

Armenia’s deputy foreign minister is due in Tehran on Tuesday for talks on the issue, Tehran has said. On Saturday, a senior advisor to Iran’s supreme leader said Tehran will not allow the creation of the planned corridor, warning that the area would become “a graveyard for Trump’s mercenaries”.

Text of deal

Armenia and Azerbaijan published the text of a US-brokered peace agreement on Monday, pledging to respect each other’s territorial integrity and formally put an end to nearly four decades of conflict.

The deal was struck in Washington on Friday, when Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met President Donald Trump at the White House.

The text of the agreement, which was initialled by the countries’ foreign ministers, says Yerevan and Baku will relinquish all claims to each other’s territory, refrain from using force against one another and pledge to respect international law.

“This agreement is a solid foundation for establishing a reliable and lasting peace, the result of an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan that reflects the balanced interests of the two countries,” Pashinyan wrote on Facebook.

Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbours in the South Caucasus region, have been locked in conflict since the late 1980s over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region at the southern end of the Karabakh mountain range, within Azerbaijan. Baku took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.

The European Union, Nato member Turkiye and Russia have welcomed the accord, although Moscow, a traditional broker and ally of Armenia, was left out and warned against foreign meddling.

The deal explicitly bans the deployment of third-party forces along the countries’ shared border, a possible reference to Russia, which has previously deployed peacekeepers to the region and still has extensive military and security interests in Armenia. The European Union also has a mission deployed at the border to monitor ceasefire violations, which Baku has repeatedly demanded it withdraw.

The peace deal has not yet been signed by the two rivals, who both gained their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In a major hurdle to peace, Azerbaijan is demanding that Armenia change its constitution, which Baku says makes an implicit claim on Azerbaijani territory.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2025

NEW DELHI: Dozens of Indian opposition leaders were detained in New Delhi on Monday as they shou­ted slogans, jumped barricades and marched to the Election Commi­ssion in a rare public protest against what they say are electoral malpractices.

The credibility of elections has rarely been questioned in recent decades in the world’s most populous democracy. Some analysts say the opposition accusations could dam­age Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he navigates one of the toughest periods of his 11 years in office.

Around 300 opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the main opposition Congress party, marched from parliament to the office of the independent election panel but were stopped by police some distance away.

The protesters shouted slogans against the panel and Modi’s government, saying elections were being “stolen”, and tried to push past barricades before being detained and taken away in buses.

Congress leader alleges voter list manipulation in BJP-ruled states to rig elections

“This fight is not political. This fight is to save the constitution,” Gandhi told reporters. “We want a clean, pure voters’ list.” Gandhi and Congress have alleged that voters’ lists in states where the party lost are corrupted, with voters’ names deleted or included more than once to rig elections in favour of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

Opposition parties have also criticised the election panel’s decision to revise the voters’ list in the key northern state of Bihar just before state elections due later this year, saying it aims to disenfranchise large numbers of poor voters. The BJP and the Election Commission have rejected the accusations.

‘State of bankruptcy’

The commission has said that changes in voters’ lists are shared with political parties and all complaints are investigated thoroughly. It has also said that voters’ lists need to be revised to remove dead voters or those who have relocated to other parts of the country, among others.

Congress and its allies have fared poorly in two state elections that they had expected to win after an impressive show in last year’s parliamentary vote, which saw BJP losing its outright majority and remaining in power only with the help of regional parties.

Congress has also complained about electronic voting machines and said the counting process is not fair, charges rejected by the election panel. The BJP said opposition parties were trying to create a “state of anarchy” by sowing seeds of doubt about the electoral process.

“They are in a state of bankruptcy because of their continuous losses,” federal minister Dharmendra Prad­han told reporters on Monday.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2025

PARIS: Three-quarters of UN members have already or soon plan to recognise Palestinian statehood, with Australia on Monday becoming the latest to promise it will do so at the UN General Asse­mbly next month.

“Australia will recognise the state of Palestine at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September, to contribute to international momentum towards a two-state solution, a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages,” Prime Minister Ant­h­ony Albanese said in a statement.

The conflict raging in Gaza since Oct 2023 has revived a global push for Palestinians to be given a state of their own.

The action breaks with a long-held view that Palesti­nians could only gain statehood as part of a negotiated peace with Israel.

At least 145 of the 193 UN members now recognise or plan to recognise a Palest­inian state, including Fra­nce, Canada and Britain.

Here is a recap of the Palestinians’ quest for statehood:

1988: Arafat proclaims state

On Nov 15, 1988, during the first intifada, Palesti­nian leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally proclaimed an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

He made the announcement in Algiers at a meeting of the exiled Palest­inian National Council, which adopted the two-state solution as a goal, with independent Israeli and Palestinian states existing side by side.

Minutes later, Algeria became the first country to officially recognise an inde­pendent Palestinian state.

2011-2012: UN recognition

In 2011, with peace talks at a standstill, the Palestinians pushed ahead with a campaign for full UN membership.

The quest failed, but in a groundbreaking move on Oct 31 of that year, the UN cultural agency Unesco voted to accept the Palestinians as a full member, much to the dismay of Israel and the United States.

In Nov 2012, the Palestinian flag was raised for the first time at the United Nations in New York after the General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to upgrade the status of Palestinians to “non-member observer state”.

New push

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza over the last two years has boosted support for Palestinian statehood.

Four Caribbean countries (Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and the Bahamas) and Armenia took the diplomatic step last year.

So did four European countries: Norway, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia, the latter three EU members.

Within the European Union, this was a first in 10 years since Sweden’s move in 2014, which resulted in years of strained relations with Israel.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2025

• BJP-linked group takes out countrywide rallies, urging people to boycott American brands
• World’s most populous nation is a key market for US goods

NEW DELHI: From McDonald’s and Coca-Cola to Amazon and Apple, US-based multinationals are facing calls for a boycott in India as business executives and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s supporters stoke anti-American sentiment to protest against US tariffs.

India, the world’s most populous nation, is a key market for American brands that have rapidly expanded to target a growing base of affluent consumers, many of whom remain infatuated with international labels seen as symbols of moving up in life.

India, for example, is the biggest market by users for Meta’s WhatsApp and Domino’s has more restaurants than any other brand in the country. Beverages like Pepsi and Coca-Cola often dominate store shelves, and people still queue up when a new Apple store opens or a Starbucks cafe doles out discounts.

Although there was no immediate indication of sales being hit, there’s a growing chorus both on social media and offline to buy local and ditch American products after Donald Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on goods from India, rattling exporters and damaging ties between New Delhi and Washington.

McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Amazon and Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters queries.

Manish Chowdhary, co-founder of India’s Wow Skin Science, took to LinkedIn with a video message urging support for farmers and startups to make “Made in India” a “global obsession,” and to learn from South Korea whose food and beauty products are famous worldwide.

“We have lined up for products from thousands of miles away. We have proudly spent on brands that we don’t own, while our own makers fight for attention in their own country,” he said.

Rahm Shastry, CEO of India’s DriveU, which provides a car driver on call service, wrote on LinkedIn: “India should have its own home-grown Twitter/Google/YouTube/WhatsApp/FB — like China has.”

To be fair, Indian retail companies give foreign brands like Starbucks stiff competition in the domestic market, but going global has been a challenge. Indian IT services firms, however, have become deeply entrenched in the global economy, with the likes of TCS and Infosys providing software solutions to clients world over.

On Sunday, Modi made a “special appeal” for becoming self-reliant, telling a gathering in Bengaluru that Indian technology companies made products for the world but “now is the time for us to give more priority to India’s needs.” He did not name any company.

Public rallies

Even as anti-American protests simmer, Tesla launched its second showroom in India in New Delhi, with Monday’s opening attended by Indian commerce ministry officials and US embassy officials.

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch group, which is linked to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, took out small public rallies across India on Sunday, urging people to boycott American brands.

“People are now looking at Indian products. It will take some time to fructify,” Ashwani Mahajan, the group’s co-convener, told Reuters. “This is a call for nationalism, patriotism.” He also shared with Reuters a table his group is circulating on WhatsApp, listing Indian brands of bath soaps, toothpaste and cold drinks that people could choose over foreign ones.

On social media, one of the group’s campaigns is a graphic titled “Boycott foreign food chains”, with logos of McDonald’s and many other restaurant brands.

In Uttar Pradesh, Rajat Gupta, 37, who was dining at a McDonalds in Lucknow on Monday, said he wasn’t concerned about the tariff protests and simply enjoyed the 49-rupee ($0.55) coffee he considered good value for money.

“Tariffs are a matter of diplomacy and my McPuff, coffee should not be dragged into it,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2025