US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in a shot to ease pressures and maintain a fragile ceasefire between the ex-Soviet countries and rivals following the largest outbreak of conflict in further than two times.
Blinken, on Monday, brought Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov together at a New York hostel on the sidelines of the periodic UN General Assembly.
It was the foreign ministers’ first face- to- face meeting since two days of shelling last week by both sides killed further than 200 colors.
Only Blinken spoke at the launch of the meeting at which the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegations sat somberly on contrary sides, separated by US officers.
“We’re encouraged by the fact that the fighting has desisted and there has not been” a resumption of shelling, said Blinken, who has spoken several times to the leaders of both countries.
“Strong, sustainable politic engagement is the stylish path for everyone,” he said. “There’s a path to a durable peace that resolves the differences.“
Open for meetings
The meeting was held just a day after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Armenia and condemned Azerbaijani attacks, drawing complaints from Baku.
“This is a serious blow to the sweats to normalise relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday, casting Pelosi’s reflections as “Armenian propaganda”.
Speaking ahead of Monday’s meeting, Bayramov said his country is “satisfied with the position of relations” with the US and said his direct addresses with Mirzoyan weren’t unusual.
“We’re always open for meetings,” he said.
The two Caucasus countries have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno- Karabakh, a region located within Azerbaijan but that had been long under the control of Armenia.
During a six- week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno- Karabakh and conterminous homes held by Armenian forces. further than 6,700 people failed in that fighting.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have each criticized the other for starting last week’s shelling attacks.
