Azernews.Az

The US Helsinki Commission is due to hold a briefing on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh and other unresolved disputes in the Caucasus next Wednesday.

The briefing, titled "Conflicts in the Caucasus: Prospects for Resolution", will focus on the current state of the regional conflicts, obstacles in resolving them and potential US assistance in achieving their solution.

Organizers said unresolved conflicts remain one of the most pressing issues facing the Caucasus region 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Despite the OSCE’s long-standing mediation efforts aimed at Karabakh settlement, the results have been "disappointing", they said.

After the Russia-Georgia brief war in 2008 and Moscow’s subsequent recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the prospects for settling those conflicts seem "more remote than ever", according to organizers.

The event will be joined by leading US political analysts, government officials, senators, as well as Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Tom de Waal, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution Fiona Hill and Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council Wayne Merry.

The Karabakh conflict emerged during the last few years of the Soviet Union. 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been under Armenian occupation since the two South Caucasus republics signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following a brutal war. Peace talks, brokered by the United States, Russia and France through the OSCE Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far.

The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the US Helsinki Commission, is an independent agency of the federal government charged with monitoring compliance with the Helsinki Accords and advancing comprehensive security through promotion of human rights, democracy, and economic, environmental and military cooperation in 56 countries. The Commission consists of nine members from the U.S. Senate, nine from the House of Representatives, and one member each from the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce.