Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The United States called on the parties to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to reaffirm their commitment to making progress in peaceful settlement of the issue.

Eric Rubin, the deputy assistant Secretary of State for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and regional conflicts made the remarks while speaking at the Brookings Institution, the Armenian media reported.

Rubin said there is no alternative to the peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Bloody war in the early 1990s resulted with expelling of over one million Azerbaijanis from their native lands.

Rubin noted that the U.S. considers this issue from the perspective of achieving fair, peaceful, long-term and mutually beneficial settlement.

Everyone should consider this issue namely from this point of view, since there is no better solution to this problem, he added.

Rubin went on to say that all other alternatives are so awful that there is no even point to consider them.

Together with two other co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group from Russia and France, the U.S. will continue rendering assistance in the peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh issue, according to Rubin.

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 and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.

Rubin also added that the efforts of the co-chairing countries are especially important in preventing the escalation of the conflict.

Both sides of the conflict should make every effort in order to prevent the aggravation of the situation, the U.S. official said, adding that in this tense and dangerous period, it is crucial to avoid incidents.

Furthermore, emphasizing that the current situation in the South Caucasus is unacceptable, Rubin said Washington should pay more attention to the South Caucasus region.

He said the status quo in the region is unacceptable, noting that it is satisfactory neither for the United States, nor for the countries of the region.

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 the negotiations led by international mediators over 20 years failed to yield any results.

Armenia continues the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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