U.S. doubles down on efforts to de-escalate Karabakh tensions

Washington/03.10.20/Turan:Washington on Friday urged Baku and Yerevan to back down and give diplomacy a chance while international moderators are doubling down their efforts to de-escalate tension in the region, TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports.

Robert O'Brien, White House national security adviser, spoke with both Azerbaijani and Armenia leaders before meeting with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in Geneva.

"In both calls [with Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan], I pressed for immediate de-escalation and a return to Minsk Group-facilitated dialogue. This is critical for the region and the people of both countries," National Security Council tweeted quoting O'Brien.

Nagorno-Karabakh was also among a range of topics O'Brien discussed with his Russia's Patrushev, a White House official confirmed to TURAN's correspondent.

Separately, top State Department official Philip Reeer, head of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, is arriving in Turkey today to discuss the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, along with other issues, TURAN was informed by diplomatic sources.

Speaking on board a plane returning from Croatia, the last stop on his mini European tour, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged third parties to "stay out of the conflict".

In the meantime, he refrained to back up French President Emmanuel Macron's allegations regarding Syrian fighters' arriving in Azerbaijan via Turkey, saying that he hopes those reports were not accurate.

"I’ve seen that reporting too. That’s all I can really say at this point. I hope it’s not the case, right.  We saw Syrian fighters taken from the battlefields in Syria to Libya.  That created more instability, more turbulence, more conflict, more fighting, less peace.  I think it would do the same thing in the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as well.  So I hope that reporting proves inaccurate."

Washington, he said, "urged everyone to just stay out of this other than to urge that there be a ceasefire and that dialogue be the methodology by which order is restored, peace is restored. At least we hope that's the case."

"We ve certainly communicated that to both the Azerbaijanis and Armenian leaders, and to the Turks as well," he added.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.