'Delicate Situation': U.S. Says Tension In Karabakh Suggests Urgency For Peace

Washington D.C./10.03.23/Turan:    The State Department on Thursday agreed that U.S. intelligence's prediction of "tense and occasionally volatile relations" between Azerbaijan and Armenia, in absence of a peace treaty, suggests urgency of peace, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"There’s always been urgency with this... and there’s been urgency because this is a delicate situation," spokesperson Ned Price told a daily press briefing in response to TURAN's question.

In its latest annual threat assessment report, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that peace negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia "have made some progress, but the most difficult issues related to state borders and the future of Nagorno-Karabakh are far from being resolved."

According to the report, relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan "are likely to remain tense and occasionally volatile in the absence of a peace treaty."

Price, in his turn, reminded that it’s a situation "that is far too prone to violence, as we’ve seen in recent days in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and it is a longstanding conflict that the United States would like to do everything we can to support its resolution."

He went on to conclude, "We’re going to continue to do that by working bilaterally with these countries, trilaterally with Armenia and Azerbaijan, supporting their own efforts at dialogue and diplomacy, but also through all appropriate mechanisms to help these countries themselves conduct the diplomacy and reach the agreements that we hope that they will be able to make."

Alex Raufoglu