Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of State, was asked during an August 7 press briefing to comment on statements from “Russian officials” that if Armenia and Azerbaijan rush into a peace agreement they should expect further conflict.
The statement is primarily attributable to Denis Gonchar, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, who told Russia’s TASS news agency on August 4 that “a hastily prepared, raw [Armenian-Azerbaijani] peace treaty would not bring a sustainable peace to the region, but, on the contrary, would lay the foundation for new conflicts and tragedies in the future.”
Gonchar stressed that it was Western powers that are trying to rush Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on the treaty even though the conflicting sides have yet to “find solutions on a number of difficult topics.”
In this regard Miller said: “I don’t want to speak with respect to Russia when it comes to Armenia and Azerbaijan. I want to speak with respect to those two countries who are directly related – who are direct parties in this dispute. We have been engaged directly with those countries; Special Envoy Bono traveled to the region last week and engaged directly with them. And we believe, despite any comments from other countries who are not a party to this matter, that an agreement remains within reach, and we will continue to work with them to pursue it.”
In recent months, the United States and the European Union have stepped up their efforts to broker a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers held two rounds of intensive U.S.-mediated negotiations outside Washington in May and June. Meanwhile, the EU’s top official, Charles Michel, hosted a series of Armenian-Azerbaijani summits in Brussels.
The would-be peace treaty topped the agenda of those talks which fueled speculation that it could be signed by the end of this year. Moscow has been very critical of the Western peace efforts, saying that their main aim is to drive it out of the South Caucasus. U.S. and EU officials deny this.