Washington to assist in peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
By Sara Rajabova
The U.S. official has said Washington intends to assist Azerbaijan and Armenia in the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Azerbaijan Dereck Hogan made the remark at the "Oil and Gas Week 2014" international conference in Baku on November 21.
The U.S. is the co-chairing country of the OSCE Minsk Group dealing with the conflict resolution.
"We intend to assist the sides in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict peacefully. The U.S. support in holding the meetings of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Sochi and Paris, as well as a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and both presidents testify that Washington fully supports the sides in the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he said.
For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor.
Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.