U.S. reaffirms its active neutrality on Karabakh conflict

The United States will maintain a policy of “active neutrality” on Nagorno Karabakh, TURAN's Washington correspondent was told by a diplomatic source on Friday, following the talks between top U.S. officials and the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White House advisor Robert C. O’Brien, and speaker Nancy Pelosi, called on ministers Jeyhun Bayramov and Zohrab Mnatsakanyan to “end the violence and protect civilians” after nearly a month of intense fighting in and around Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh territory, but there were no immediate signs of progress.

Both ministers visited the State Department, White House (National Security Council), and Congressional buildings separately, and refused to share the same room with one another, Turan's correspondent reports. Even OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, who held separate discussions with FMs, couldn't manage to bring them together.

Shortly after Pompeo's meetings with the ministers, the State Department said in a statement that it “emphasized the need to end the violence and protect civilians,” but did not announce an agreement.

“The Secretary also stressed the importance of the sides entering substantive negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to resolve the conflict based on the Helsinki Final Act principles of the non-use or threat of force, territorial integrity, and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples,” spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus .

Pompeo later tweeted that he and both foreign ministers discussed “critical steps” to halt the violence. “Both must implement a cease-fire and return to substantive negotiations,” he noted.

In his turn, President Trump's national security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, announced in the afternoon that during his meeting with Bayramov he "pressed for an immediate ceasefire then a return to Minsk Group-facilitated negotiations with Armenia, and rejection of outside actors further destabilizing the situation."

In the meantime, he added, he met Mnatsakanyan to "discuss the need for an immediate ceasefire and a return to Minsk Group-facilitated negotiations with Azerbaijan." "The U.S. will continue our strongest diplomatic efforts at all levels until the conflict is resolved.”

Speaking to TURAN's Washington correspondent in a condition of anonymity, a senior official who had been following the latest diplomatic efforts, said that Washington has "got no dog in this battle", and that it will "maintain impartiality", as an honest broker.

The U.S government she said, had been accused of disengagement and passive neutrality. Friday meetings, though, were "in keeping with U.S. policy of active neutrality".

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.