US sees 'real opportunity' for Azerbaijan, Armenia to make peace

By Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US sees a "real opportunity" for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which would benefit the entire region through a trade route, according to a senior US diplomat on Monday.

"We see a real opportunity for Azerbaijan and Armenia to make peace. We’re encouraged that the two sides are speaking with one another directly and with mediators," Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien told reporters ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's travel to Brussels to attend NATO Foreign Ministers meeting.

"For example, if trade from Central Asia is able to flow through Azerbaijan and Armenia into Türkiye, then it would be a substantial boost for all the countries on that trade route," said O’Brien. "And we’d welcome the opportunity to be part of that".

However, he added that if the decision is made "not to pursue that by peaceful means," the US would have to use "whatever tools" it could to "avoid having that kind of trade route created."

"So we’ve been very clear with the parties about what we hope to see and about the consequences of moving forward otherwise," he said, adding that the parties expressed an interest in concluding a peace agreement "very soon".

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement and also opened the door to normalization.

Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh after an "anti-terrorism operation" in September, after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.