U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to host the talks on November 20. However, Baku cancelled them in protest against what it called pro-Armenian statements made by James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia.
Speaking during a congressional hearing in Washington on November 15, O’Brien condemned Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and warned Baku against attacking Armenia to open a land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave.
Blinken telephoned Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev before sending O’Brien to Baku this week. The latter described his talks with Aliyev and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov as “positive and constructive.”
“As I told President Aliyev … Secretary Blinken looks forward to hosting foreign ministers Bayramov and Mirzoyan in Washington soon for peace negotiations,” the U.S. diplomat tweeted early on Thursday.
Simonian insisted that Yerevan and Baku are not even discussing yet possible time frames for those negotiations.
“We have said that we are not refusing any meetings,” he told reporters. “The Azerbaijani side has declined at least three invitations [from Western mediators.] We hope that it will become more constructive.”
Aliyev twice cancelled meetings with Pashinian which the European Union planned to organize in October. The two leaders were due to try to bridge their remaining differences on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
Aliyev cautioned on Wednesday that the treaty alone would not guarantee a lasting peace between the two South Caucasus nations. He said he wants to secure safeguards against Armenian “revanchism.”
“In order to prevent revanchism, he should form a peace agenda together with us,” countered Simonian. “There is no other way.”