US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that the negotiations had been “intensive”. (File)
Washington:
Armenia and Azerbaijan have again agreed to respect a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as of Monday, the US State Department said, after previous attempts failed to stem the bloodshed in the disputed area.
World leaders have been scrambling for weeks to negotiate a truce, with Russian President Vladimir Putin estimating that nearly 5,000 people have been killed so far in weeks of fighting in the mountainous province.
A first ceasefire negotiated by France and a second negotiated by Russia have already failed.
The latest truce would come into effect Monday at 8:00 am local time (0400 GMT), according to a joint statement by the US State Department and the so-called “Minsk” group trying to bring a negotiated end to the conflict.
Azerbaijan praised the agreement on Sunday in a statement by its ambassador to the United States, Elin Suleymanov, while pointing the finger at Armenia.
“We urge Armenia to respect the ceasefire and end its military provocations as agreed. Azerbaijan is firmly committed to achieving peace and the high death toll of Azerbaijani civilians in recent weeks shows who is the aggressor, “Suleymanov said.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a bitter conflict over Karabakh since Yerevan-backed Armenian separatists took control of the mountainous province in a 1990s war that left 30,000 dead.
Karabakh’s self-proclaimed independence has not been internationally recognized, even by Armenia, and it is still part of Azerbaijan under international law.
The current conflict erupted on September 27. Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of having targeted the civilian population and breaking previous truces.
The latest ceasefire push came after US Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Biegun met Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and the Group co-chairs in Washington on Saturday. Minsk, made up of the United States, France and Russia.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that the negotiations had been “intensive”.
‘An easy’
Pompeo had met separately in Washington on Friday with Mnatsakanyan and Bayramov, urging them to “end the violence and protect civilians.”
Negotiations continued behind the scenes on Saturday in the US capital, with meetings in Biegun and calls from US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
“Congratulations to everyone for agreeing to join the ceasefire today. Lives will be saved in both countries,” O’Brien tweeted on Sunday.
Since September 27, Azerbaijani forces have conquered territories beyond Baku’s control since the 1990s.
Beyond a humanitarian ceasefire, the international community has so far been unable to negotiate a lasting truce and even more a peaceful end to the conflict. In addition, Armenia on Wednesday ruled out any “diplomatic solution”.
The State Department said the Minsk co-chairs and foreign ministers “agreed to meet again in Geneva on October 29” to seek “all measures necessary to achieve a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Upper Karabakh “.
US President Donald Trump, who is campaigning frantically for re-election as he lags in the polls behind Democrat Joe Biden, has vowed to resolve the conflict.
“They are amazing people. They fight like hell,” he said of Armenians at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Sunday, nine days before the Nov. 3 election.
“And you know what? We’re going to do something,” he told the crowd.
A group of Armenians had attended his rally in Ohio the day before, he continued.
“The problems they’ve got, death and fighting and everything else, we’ll fix that. It’s going to be – I call it easy,” he said, praising his diplomatic credentials without giving details.
The United States has said it is neutral, but in a recent interview Pompeo described Armenia’s actions as defensive.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
