Blinken discusses peace talks with Armenia, Azerbaijan leaders

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held calls with the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders on Tuesday to discuss stalled peace talks between the Caucasus rivals. Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a decades-long conflict over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Baku recaptured from Armenian separatists in a lightning offensive in September. Washington, Brussels and Moscow have all been engaged in diplomatic efforts to normalise relations between the two countries, but a broad peace deal has remained elusive. Azerbaijan refused to participate in talks that were planned in the US earlier this month over what it called Washington’s “biased” position. In a phone call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday, Blinken highlighted the United States’ “enduring relations with Azerbaijan”, but also “noted recent points of concern in the relationship,” his spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. The call was seen as an attempt to put the US back at the centre of talks amid a diplomatic row between Washington and Baku. Earlier in November, US Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien said Washington had cancelled a number of high-level visits to Azerbaijan and condemned Baku’s September 19 one-day military operation in Karabakh. After Azerbaijan recaptured the region, almost all of its 100,000 residents, mostly ethnic Armenians, fled to Armenia, triggering a refugee crisis in the country. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but was home to a majority Armenian population for decades. It had been under the control of pro-Armenia separatists since the early 1990s. Baku said Aliyev had told Blinken that “the latest statements and actions taken by the US have seriously damaged Azerbaijan-US relations.” Nevertheless, it said the two sides had agreed that O’Brien would visit Azerbaijan in December, and that Blinken had promised to lift a ban on Azerbaijani officials visiting the US. In a separate call, Blinken also spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to highlight “US support for efforts to reach a durable and dignified peace agreement,” his spokesman said. Internationally mediated peace talks between the ex-Soviet republics have seen little progress so far, but both countries’ leaders have said a comprehensive agreement could still be signed by the end of the year.