Azerbaijan snubs US-mediated peace talks with Armenia
- 18 November, 04:59
Azerbaijan has pulled out of the peace talks with Armenia in Washington after accusing the US of a biased approach.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry published a statement on November 16 announcing the decision not to attend the meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministries in Washington. The announcement came after US Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien's testimony the previous day at a House Foreign Affairs Committee. In the hearing titled "The Future of Nagorno-Karabakh,” O’Brien expressed support for Armenia. O’Brien said Washington had cancelled high-level meetings and engagements with Azerbaijan and urged Baku to facilitate the return of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population that fled after Azerbaijan’s full takeover of the region in September.
The Azerbaijani Ministry stated that O’Brien’s “one-sided” remarks and “groundless accusations” undermined peace and security in the region and also harmed the Azerbaijani-US relations.
The ministry described the United States as “a non-regional country” that was “undermining transportation security efforts of the regional countries.” Furthermore, the ministry accused Armenia of not fulfilling its obligations arising from paragraph 9 of the Tripartite Statement signed after the war in 2020, “which led Azerbaijan to decide to build alternative roads.”
It’s worth noting that the snub was not the first case of Azerbaijan refusing to attend negotiations mediated by the West. Back in October, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev refused to take part at the EU-brokered meeting with the Armenian Prime Minister in Grenada, Spain. According to the Azerbaijani media, Aliyev had wanted Turkey to be presented at the meeting but Germany and France objected to this.
