(Reuters) – Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry announced on Thursday that it would be unable to participate in a meeting with Armenia’s foreign minister, scheduled for Nov. 20 in Washington. The reason cited was the “one-sided approach of the United States”. The ministry also stated that senior U.S. officials were not welcome in Baku for the same reason.
In response, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed his intention to ramp up political and diplomatic efforts to finalize a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, as reported by Russia’s TASS news agency on Thursday.
The two neighboring countries have been locked in conflict for many years, primarily over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. This area is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it has been largely controlled by ethnic Armenians with support from Yerevan, until Baku recaptured it in September.
Azerbaijan specifically took issue with the “one-sided and biased” comments made by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. The ministry criticized O’Brien for failing to mention the “illegal stationing of more than 10,000 Armenian armed forces” and for not acknowledging that Armenia had not been responding to Azerbaijani peace proposals for over two months.
The statement from the Azerbaijani foreign ministry also accused Washington of continuing to support Armenia, despite Armenia being characterized as “an aggressor and a destabilizing source in the region”.
According to a transcript posted by the committee, O’Brien emphasized that “there cannot be ‘business as usual'” in the U.S.’ relations with Baku. He also announced that the U.S. had cancelled high-level bilateral meetings and engagements with Azerbaijan, and stated that they would continue to urge Azerbaijan to facilitate the return of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians who may wish to go back to their homes or visit cultural sites in the region, as well as restore unimpeded commercial, humanitarian, and pedestrian traffic to the region.
Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov recently stated at a forum in Tbilisi that Baku had been committed to peace and the restoration of transport links with Armenia since 2020, but that progress was contingent on Yerevan’s actions. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Mark Trevelyan)
