Bayramov and Mirzoyan were due to begin on June 12 a fresh round of negotiations in Washington to try to build on progress towards an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty made by the two sides in recent weeks.
A spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry said the talks have been delayed “at the request of the Azerbaijani side.” She did not give a reason for the delay.
“The public will be duly notified of the new dates of the meeting,” she added in a short statement.
The Azerbaijani news agency Turan was the first to report earlier in the day that the Washington talks have been postponed. It cited unnamed diplomatic sources as attributing the postponement to a scheduling conflict and “logistical” issues.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry essentially confirmed the information. “We hope that the meeting will take place in the near future,” a ministry spokesman said, adding that the new date will be announced by the U.S. State Department.
“Regarding the exact date of the next round of talks, we don’t have any specific dates to announce at this time,” a State Department spokesperson said in written comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The official also said Washington looks forward to again hosting Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. “Direct dialogue is the key to resolving issues and reaching a durable and dignified peace,” added the official.
The two foreign ministers held four-day negotiations outside Washington one month ago. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met together with European Union chief Charles Michel a week later. They held two more meetings in the following weeks and are due to meet again in July.
The two sides say that despite Pashinian’s pledge to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh through the peace treaty, they still disagree on other sticking points.
Tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and “the line of contact” around Karabakh have steadily increased over the last few weeks, with the sides accusing each other of violating the ceasefire on a virtually daily basis. Armenian officials and pundits claim that Baku is ratcheting them up in a bid to clinch more Armenian concessions.
Incidentally, the U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Kristina Kvien, visited on Thursday Armenia’s Syunik province bordering Azerbaijan. She said she “saw first hand the tense situation along the border” and “heard about pervasive security concerns from local officials, civil society.”
“Everyone deserves the safety and security a just and durable peace would bring,” tweeted Kvien.