US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken pledged his country’s support for the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, during separate talks he held with the leaders of the two countries, to achieve lasting peace in the South Caucasus.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said – in a statement – that Blinken expressed, in his call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, “his country’s deep concern that Azerbaijan’s establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor would undermine efforts to build confidence in the peace process.”
And the “Lachin” corridor is a road leading to Karabakh, and it passes through Azerbaijani lands, and Azerbaijan established the checkpoint at the end of last week, in a step that Armenia considered a violation of the recent ceasefire declared between the two sides.
The statement added that Blinken stressed the importance of reopening the lane to commercial and private vehicles as soon as possible.
Miller also confirmed – in a separate statement – last Saturday that Blinken also had a conversation with the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan.
The US Secretary of State also spoke about “the importance of peace talks between Baku and Yerevan,” stressing that direct dialogue and diplomacy are the only way to a lasting solution.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war to control the Karabakh region at the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, which resulted in 30,000 deaths, and ended with the victory of Armenia.
Another conflict broke out in the fall of 2020 that lasted 44 days, killed 6,500 people, and allowed Baku to control large swathes of territory.
