Washington Activated in Karabakh Settlement?

Following the meeting of the US Secretary of State John Kerry with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Warsaw in the evening on July 8, Yerevan and Baku have not made any statements. However, the American Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick, who participated in the meeting, hastened to play the role of a press secretary for Aliyev and Sargsyan and, in fact, made a statement on their behalf.

So, on his Twitter account Warlick wrote that the Karabakh conflict sides reject a military solution to the problem. "The US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the Karabakh issue with the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents. The parties reject war and are committed to the negotiations. The US is ready to help."

The State Department spokesman John Kirby was more restrained and more specific in his estimates. He said the Secretary of State reiterated the need to implement the commitments reached at the meetings in Vienna and St. Petersburg. Kerry also reiterated US support for negotiations leading to a comprehensive settlement of the conflict.

The Armenian side also reported that at the meeting with Kerry the sides touched upon the details of the July 6 telephone conversation between the Presidents of Russia and the United States, where they discussed issues of the Karabakh settlement. Recall that an important element of Putin's conversation with Obama was Obama’s statement on the US readiness to intensify efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "President Obama has expressed his willingness to intensify efforts together with Russia and France as Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the conflict," the White House said.

Summarizing all the above, we can assume that Washington has decided not to lag behind Moscow and demanded that Moscow agree to settle the issues of the settlement with the US.

The Warlick and Kerry declaration about the need to respect the agreements in Vienna and St. Petersburg does not sound very nice for Baku. In practice, this means a ban on the conduct of military hostilities.

The meeting in Warsaw should be evaluated in the context of the very atmosphere of the NATO summit, where the Alliance actually challenged Russia, expressing willingness to confront its aggressive policy in Europe.

Therefore, the unexpected call of Aliyev and Sargsyan to Warsaw and their meeting with Kerry can be considered one of Washington's steps to prevent Moscow’s solving the conflict in Karabakh at its sole discretion.

The urgent calls for peace more satisfy Armenia in this case, since they erect barriers to Azerbaijan in the military solution of the conflict. -02B-