Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2025
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/trump-just-negotiated-another-bad
https://theduran.com/trump-just-negotiated-another-bad-deal-this-with-armenia/
Trump just negotiated another bad deal — this with Armenia.
13 August 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
Bad for everyone except U.S.-and-allied billionaires, that is:
As a part of Trump’s Israeli war to destroy Iran, and part of the U.S. regime’s goal ever since 1945 to ultimately capture Russia, he announced on August 7th, a supposed ‘peace’ agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia (actually a capitulation of Armenia to Azerbaijan) that includes a 99-year lease to U.S.-and-allied companies to build and police, through both countries, a “transit corridor” — the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP) — benefitting Armenia’s traditional enemies (remember the Armenian genocide in Turkey in 1915-16) Turkey and Azerbaijan, harming Armenia’s traditional friends Iran and Russia, and linking the bulk of Armenia’s territory to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave that borders Turkey, so that full transit through this route will connect the countries that are near to Russia’s southwest, through perhaps to Europe, and avoiding Russia and Iran. This is part of the U.S. regime’s plan, ever since 1945, to turn all of Russia’s neighboring countries against Russia — make them dependent upon (and buying their weapons from) the U.S. Government instead (like what happened to the nations in the EU).
On August 7th, Reuters headlined “U.S. secures strategic transit corridor in Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal”, and reported that,
When U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to the White House on Friday, the meeting will culminate in the signing of a peace framework that includes exclusive U.S. development rights to a strategic transit corridor through the South Caucasus, officials told Reuters. …
Under a carefully negotiated section of the documents the leaders will sign on Friday, Armenia plans to award the United States exclusive special development rights for an extended period on a transit corridor that will be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, and known by the acronym TRIPP, the officials said.
The route will be operated according to Armenian law and the United States will sublease the land to a consortium for infrastructure and management, the officials said.
"Through commercial means, this step will unlock the region and avert further hostilities," one of the officials said.
On August 9th, the Economist headlined “Donald Trump brokers a peace plan in the Caucasus: An American-backed deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan could weaken Russia”, and gloated over the prospect that it “could weaken Russia.. They also presented a map indicating the areas that might utimately be settlled upon in whch to place the TRIPP.
On August 10th, Forbes headlined “The Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Deal And The New Trump Corridor”, and reported that,
The corridor would forge a pathway from the Stans in Central Asia down through the Caucasus to Turkey and beyond to the world, effectively revitalizing the old Silk Road. Which means it would bypass both Russia and Iran, countries which have hitherto colluded to keep Central Asia’s trade access westward bottled up except via their territory. Russia, in particular, is the loser here having dominated the terrain for over two centuries, imposing a choke hold and Moscow-centric dependency on its backyard from Turkmenistan to Kyrgyzstan. Those economies now stand to be liberated geopolitically from effective control by Russia. …
Why has Armenia consented? Answer: because Armenians now distrust Moscow as security guarantor and have found a new one instead.
Nearly a month ago, on July 22nd, Azbarez, an Armenian-American newspaper in L.A., headlined “New Poll Shows Dissatisfaction with Pashinyan, His Office and His Party, as Large Percentage Opts Not to Vote”, and reported that,
A new opinion poll commissioned by the Washington-based International Republican Institute revealed that a whopping 61 percent of those polled do not trust any political entity in Armenia. …
Pashinyan’s popularity dropped to 13 percent compared to a similar poll conducted by the same group in September, which has his rating at 17 percent. …
The polls showed a distrust among citizens of the current opposition forces, with former president Robert Kocharian’s Armenia Alliance being deemed most popular, with a four-percent popularity. …
On the foreign policy and international relations front, Iran was rated Armenia’s top partner.
According to the poll, 53 percent of respondents consider Iran to be Armenia’s most important “political partner.” It is followed by France (48 percent) and Russia (45 percent).
The respondents overwhelmingly stated that they saw Azerbaijan, Israel and Turkey as the biggest threats to Armenia’s national security and sovereignty.
So, when Forbes said “Why has Armenia consented? Answer: because Armenians now distrust Moscow as security guarantor and have found a new one instead,” they were lying.
On August 12th, the Armenian News Network headlined a youtube interview “Douglas Macgregor, Christine Arakelian - Armenia in US Geopolitical Crosshairs | Ep 460, Aug 12, 2025”, and Christine Arakelian said starting at 24:14:
So you want to separate
24:15
Russia and Iran. That's pretty, that's a pretty simple strategy, right? And the
24:20
US is well along to doing that. But for that corridor to have real value for the United States from a geostrategic
24:27
perspective, it's not going to be a proxy for uh Azerbaijan, Turkey on the
24:34
one hand and Israel [and America] on the other hand. What it's actually going to be is going to be a US corridor that cements our
24:40
relationship with India. Okay? And note that I said India and not Modi because
24:46
one of the weaknesses of this administration is candidly the obsessive focus on individuals and leaders versus
24:53
countries and interests. Uh before the Armenians and the Americans get all excited on the next
25:00
agreement, let's just recall that Pashinan has an election. Okay? There's an election coming up in Armenia in
25:05
2026. And if the US doesn't reach out to other
25:13
political parties and this becomes the Pashinan deal, it lives dies with Pashinan. It's the same thing. I don't
25:19
care if it's called TRIPP, or I don't care what it's called. But if at the end of the day the agreement doesn't extend
25:25
beyond Trump and cement US interests in the region, it's not going to accomplish anything
25:31
long term.
25:33
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
