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Washington (AFP)
Armenia and Azerbaijan have once again agreed to commit to a “humanitarian truce” in the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which will take effect on Monday, the US State Department announced, after previous attempts to do so failed. stop the fighting in the region.
For weeks, international leaders have struggled to mediate a truce in the conflict, whose battles in recent weeks have left some 5,000 people dead.
A truce had previously been reached through French mediation and another mediated by Russia, but it was not maintained.
“The humanitarian armistice will enter into force on October 26 at 8:00 local time (4:00 GMT),” said a joint statement by the US State Department and the Minsk group.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan welcomed the agreement in a statement issued by its ambassador to the United States, Ilene Suleimanov, in which it held Armenia responsible for the collapse of the two previous truces.
“We urge Armenia to comply with the ceasefire and stop its military provocations as agreed. Azerbaijan is firmly committed to achieving peace, and the high number of Azerbaijani civilians killed in recent weeks shows who the aggressor is,” he said. Soleimanov.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in an intense conflict over the Karabakh region since Yerevan-backed Armenian separatists took control of the mountainous region in the 1990s in a war that left 30,000 dead.
The separatists declared the independence of the region, which was not recognized by any state, not even Armenia. Under international law, the region remains part of Azerbaijan.
The two countries have exchanged accusations of targeting civilians since Sept. 27, when the last escalation in the region began.
The announcement came a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with his Azerbaijani counterparts, Zohrab Mnatsakyanian, as well as representatives of France and Russia in the Minsk group.
Since 1992, the Minsk group has been tasked with mediating the Nagorno Karabakh file.
A tweet to Pompeo said the negotiations were “intense.”
– “It is easy” –
Pompeo had met separately with Permov and Matsakanian, urging them to “end the violence and protect civilians.”
On Saturday, negotiations continued in Washington, far from the center of attention. Undersecretary of State Stephen Begon met with the foreign ministers of the two countries. US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien also contacted Armenian Prime Minister Nicole Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
And on Sunday, in a tweet to O’Brien, “I congratulate everyone on your agreement to join the ceasefire today.”
After September 27, Azerbaijani forces took control of territories that, since the 1990s, had been outside the control of Baku.
Previous international mediation failed to establish a permanent armistice or find a peaceful solution to the conflict. On Wednesday, Armenia excluded “any diplomatic solution.”
The US State Department announced that the representatives of the Minsk Group and the foreign ministers “agreed to meet again in Vienna on October 29” to discuss “all the necessary steps to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh.” .
US President Donald Trump, who has recently stepped up his election campaign and is late to the polls, has vowed to resolve the conflict.
“They are incredible people. They are fighting a fierce fight,” he said at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, referring to the Armenian fighters.
“You know, we will do something,” said the Republican presidential candidate, referring to the participation of an Armenian group in an election rally he organized in Ohio on Saturday.
Trump said: “The problems they suffer, death, fights and all that there are of other things, we are going to solve them. This is what is going to happen. I consider it easy,” without giving details.
The United States declared its neutrality in this dispute, but Pompeo recently described Armenia’s behavior as defensive in an interview.
© 2020 AFP
