In an interview with Ednews, Moscow-based american political analyst Andrew Korybko shared his standpoint on ongoing development in the Middle East and latest evolutions occuring in the South Caucasus.

 - How important are the Middle Corridor and the Zangezur Corridor in the South Caucasus for Russia and China? How is cooperation between Baku and Moscow developing within the North-South project and other transit projects?

The Zangezur Corridor can facilitate overland Russian-Turkish trade via Armenia-Azerbaijan, while it can also enable India to develop a western branch of the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) to Europe if ties were to improve with Azerbaijan. As for China, it has no interests or involvement in the NSTC and is instead focused on the Middle Corridor, which is aimed at streamlining a multimodal trade route between both halves of Eurasia. Cooperation with Azerbaijan is crucial to each megaproject’s success.

-  Why do you think the USA provoked a new war in the Middle East by attacking the Yemeni Houthis?

The US responded to Houthi attacks against civilian ships after repeatedly warning that Iranian-backed Yemeni rebel group to stop, but its strikes weren’t approved by the UNSC and were therefore illegal, though Washington falsely claimed that a recent UNSC Resolution tacitly granted it these rights. So long as the Houthis continue with their attacks, it’s expected that the US will continue with its strikes. For the time being, neither has dramatically escalated, though a larger war by miscalculation can’t be ruled out.

 - The Council of the European Union approved the decision to expand the monitoring mission in Armenia from 138 to 209 people. It seems that Armenia is trying to "maneuver" against the background of the processes taking place in the world. By taking refuge in the EU, the Pashinyan government is trying to fully accommodate France in the region. What is the purpose of this surveillance mission? Why is the peace process taking so long?

Pashinyan has voluntarily subordinated himself and his country to the West as their proxies, which he did after being misled by them into blaming Russia for Armenia’s defeat by Azerbaijan. The West exploited this false perception to turn this South Caucasus country into their bastion of influence for dividing-and-ruling, or at the very least monitoring, the entire region. Everything that Pashinyan does must be seen through this paradigm since he’s not behaving as an independent actor but rather as a Western puppet.

Akbar Novruz