Bono met with Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council. Grigorian’s office said they discussed “recent developments” in the peace process facilitated by the United States. It gave no other details.
The U.S. Embassy in Armenia similarly reported that Bono met senior Armenian officials to discuss ongoing efforts to end the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. It did not say whether the envoy will also visit Baku.
“Now is the time to sign a peace agreement that will allow to realize the social and economic potential of the South Caucasus,” the embassy said in a statement to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The July 10 talks between the foreign ministers of the two South Caucasus states were hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. They do not seem to have resulted in a breakthrough.
The U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said on July 15 that Washington is pressing both conflicting sides to “make some difficult choices and tough compromises” it believes are necessary for an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. He did not elaborate.
Miller spoke amid Azerbaijan’s continuing preconditions for the signing of the treaty. Those include a change of Armenia’s constitution which Baku claims contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan.
Armenian opposition leaders have speculated that the U.S. is first and foremost trying to get Yerevan to make even more concessions to Baku. The Armenian government has yet to comment on those claims. Some pro-government lawmakers have suggested that Baku is making excuses to avoid signing a peace deal that would commit it to recognizing Armenia’s borders.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev proposed last month that the two sides first work out the basic principles of the deal and sign the whole document at a later date. His top foreign policy aide reiterated the proposal at the weekend.
Yerevan has not publicly reacted to it either. Arman Yeghoyan, a senior lawmaker representing Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party, questioned the idea of such a framework agreement earlier this month.