Day: March 28, 2026

• The western branch of the North-South corridor continues functioning with minimal disruption despite ongoing airstrikes.
• Azerbaijan has acted as a crucial intermediary, briefly halting but quickly restoring cross-border trade flows.
• The route is strategically significant, supporting both commercial trade and suspected military transfers between Russia and Iran.

All the bombs dropped by the United States and Israel over the past four weeks on Iran have not disrupted a key trade route with Russia that both Tehran and Moscow rely on to help keep their respective war efforts going. And Azerbaijan, despite its strong ties to both the United States and Israel, has played a crucial role in keeping the route open.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk, in comments published by the Interfax news agency on March 25, said the “western branch” of the North-South trade corridor continued to operate normally in Iran, in spite of the US-Israeli bombing campaign.  

“We are monitoring the statistics, and they are, in principle, normal,” Overchuck said. “There was a two-day interruption (…), but we are very grateful to the Azerbaijani side in this regard; the issue was resolved promptly in cooperation with the Government of Azerbaijan, allowing our drivers to return to Russia via Azerbaijani territory.”

The interruption mentioned by Overchuk could have been connected to a March 5 Iranian drone attack on Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave. Azerbaijani authorities briefly closed the land border with Iran to truck transport immediately after that attack, but soon reopened checkpoints to commercial traffic.

“Everything is currently operating in normal mode. Everything at the border is proceeding as usual,” Overchuck said. He added that plans to build a railway link that would enable a significant expansion of North-South trade, known as the Rasht-Astara Line, was proceeding according to schedule. With financial and planning details in place, construction on the 160-kilometer route was slated to begin in April.

In addition to facilitating trade in foodstuffs and durable goods, the North-South trade route’s west branch is widely believed to facilitate the transfer of weaponry between Russia and Iran. Since mid-2025, Russia has reportedly used the route to transfer air-defense systems, radars, and other equipment to Iran. Earlier in the Russia-Ukraine war, the North-South corridor was reportedly used to supply Russia with Iranian-made drones.

The aerial war conducted by the United States and Israel has placed Azerbaijan in a delicate geopolitical situation, given that Iran sits on its southern border and Russia is to the north. Baku has attempted to remain on the sidelines of the conflict, not wanting be perceived as siding with any of the combatants.

By Eurasianet

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