U.S. urged Armenia, Azerbaijan to distance forces along border

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United States has urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to distance their forces along the border between the two countries.

Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State Vedant Patel told a briefing on Thursday, May 11 that violence undermines the progress made by Armenia and Azerbaijan toward a durable and dignified peace.

“We call on the leaders of both of these countries that when they convene in Brussels on the 14th to a – that these two parties agree to distance their forces along the border, as discussed by Secretary Blinken during their participation of these negotiations that we hosted here in Washington, D.C., at the beginning of May.” Patel said.

“We see the dialogue that we hosted as important, positive steps in which we felt the two countries had the opportunity to engage on some important issues, see the other side’s point of view. And we believe that there continues to be a durable path forward. We believe that there is a peaceful solution to this. It’s why we, from the Secretary on down, have continued to be so deeply engaged on this. But I’m not going to get ahead of these talks themselves.”

Patel noted that the Department of State will continue to remain deeply engaged on “this very important issue of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“We believe that there is a clear path forward. We obviously were happy to host these two countries at the beginning of May. We believe that those talks were fruitful and laid the groundwork for a continuation of these talks beginning in Brussels, and we’ll let that process play out,” he added.