Azernews.Az

BAKU – A peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh is a top priority for US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the US ambassador to Azerbaijan has said in a letter.

Matthew Bryza was responding to a letter regarding the Karabakh conflict sent by over 1,000 Azerbaijani women to the presidents of the United States, France and Russia -- the countries mediating peace talks ongoing between Azerbaijan and Armenia -- as well as the UN secretary-general.

According to the Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO), which initiated the appeal, Bryza wrote that a peaceful solution of the long-standing dispute would promote the development of Azerbaijan and stability in the whole South Caucasus region.

"As ambassador, I will do everything possible to assist the [mediating] Minsk Group and the conflict parties to prevent a resumption of hostilities and achieve a peaceful, negotiated, fair and lasting solution of the conflict," Bryza wrote.

The KLO said on Wednesday that its Women’s Council, along with thanking the US ambassador for his immediate response, sent another letter to him requesting to clarify some issues that were not addressed in his reply.

"In your letter you stated your support for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. We are also in favor of this option, but… for this to be possible, invader Armenia must face sanctions," the new letter says. "You are not stating your stance on this issue. We want to know why sanctions are being imposed on Libya, Syria and Belarus, on their leaders, but invader Armenia and its terrorist leaders are not facing any sanctions."

Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory since a brutal war in the early 1990s, despite four standing UN resolutions on their unconditional pullout and condemnation by a number of other international organizations. Peace talks, brokered by the US, Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far.