U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken again called for an end to Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor when he telephoned Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev over the weekend. Blinken said he expressed “deep concern” over the resulting severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential items in Karabakh.
Samantha Power, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), described the situation in the Armenian-populated region as “very troubling.” “I join Secretary Blinken’s call for the free transit of commercial and humanitarian supplies through the corridor,” she tweeted on Tuesday.
On Monday, an official in Stepanakert claimed that the Azerbaijani government has cancelled a U.S.-mediated meeting with Karabakh representatives which was due to take place in Slovakia on Tuesday. He said Western mediators will visit Yerevan in the coming days to discuss the issue with Karabakh officials.
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan did not confirm or deny this. “We are ready to support any process that will bring peace and stability to people of the South Caucasus,” it said in written comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The embassy also announced that the U.S. envoy, Louis Bono, will visit the region later this week to discuss “U.S. support for the peace process and the best way to achieve a lasting and dignified peace.” It did not elaborate.
Washington has repeatedly said that the Azerbaijani blockade is complicating international efforts to broker a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, insisted on Monday that the deal is “within reach.”
“However, we have always said that for it to be within reach both parties have to make difficult compromises,” Miller told reporters.
According to the State Department, during his conversation with Aliyev, Blinken “emphasized the need for compromise on alternative routes so humanitarian supplies can reach the population of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Baku says that food and other basic necessities should only be supplied to Karabakh from Azerbaijan proper. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, countered last week that the Azerbaijani-controlled supply line “should not be seen as an alternative to the reopening of the Lachin corridor.”