U.S. secures strategic transit corridor in Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -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.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh – an Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population -…