Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The United States remains committed to work with Azerbaijan and Armenia to help resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Robert Cekuta, told reporters on October 21.

"The visit of my colleague Ambassador James Warlick to Azerbaijan, together with other OSCE MG co-chairs, is part of the ongoing efforts to find a solution to this issue," the diplomat said.

Cekuta positively assessed the current level of the U.S.-Azerbaijani relations. “There is still work to do, but there is a lot of progress in the relations,” the ambassador said.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France, and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs dubbed the Madrid Principles. However, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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