“We urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue and intensify their engagement, including under the auspices of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, to find comprehensive solutions to all outstanding issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Ned Price, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said in a statement issued late on Monday.
The statement was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Karabakh.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and injured during the hostilities last year,” said Price. “We call for the return of all remaining detainees, a full accounting of missing persons, the voluntary return of displaced persons to their homes, comprehensive humanitarian de-mining of conflict-affected areas, and access by international humanitarian organizations to those in need.”
In an August message to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington remains committed to facilitating a “comprehensive” Karabakh settlement together with Russia and France, the two other co-chairs of the Minsk Group.
The U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Lynne Tracy, repeatedly stated afterwards that the Karabakh conflict remains unresolved after last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
“We do not see the status of Nagorno-Karabakh as having been resolved,” Tracy insisted on September 13.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemned the envoy’s remarks. It echoed President Ilham Aliyev’s repeated claims that Azerbaijan’s victory in the war put an end to the conflict.
Erika Olson, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Southern Europe and the Caucasus, met with Aliyev and Pashinian when she visited the region last week.