US has told Armenia it is ready to manage transport corridor with Azerbaijan, Armenpress reports

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(Reuters) -Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the U.S. had offered to manage a potential transport corridor that would link the bulk of Azerbaijan to an Azerbaijani exclave via Armenian territory, the Armenpress news agency reported on Wednesday.

The potential corridor, which Baku is keen to secure, would run roughly 32 km (20 miles) through Armenia’s southern Syunik province, linking the majority of Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave that borders Baku’s ally Turkey.

Azerbaijan does not want the corridor to be controlled solely by Armenia due to concerns that Yerevan could revoke access too easily.

Asked at a news conference if Armenia had received a specific proposal from Washington regarding the proposed corridor, Pashinyan said: “Yes, we have received proposals from the United States,” Armenpress, a state news agency, reported.

The transit link is one of several stumbling blocks to a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia, neighbours in the South Caucasus region who have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s and remain arch rivals.

The countries said in March they had finalised a draft peace deal, but the timeline for signing it remains uncertain.

Pashinyan’s comments came days after the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said that Washington has proposed taking over the planned transit corridor.

“They’re arguing over 32 kilometres of road, but this is no joke. It’s been going on for a decade – 32 kilometres of road,” Barrack told reporters in New York last Friday, according to a State Department readout.

“So what happens is America comes in and says, ‘Okay, we’ll take it over. Give us the 32 kilometres of road on a hundred-year lease, and you can all share it.”

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Andrew Osborn)