U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attended the opening session of the talks in Arlington, Virginia after holding separate meetings with Armenia’s Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijan’s Jeyhun Bayramov.
The talks continued in a bilateral format. The U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said on Monday that they will likely last for three days.
“We continue to believe that peace is within reach and direct dialogue is the key to resolving the remaining issues and reaching a durable and dignified peace,” Miller told a news briefing in Washington.
Mirzoyan and Bayramov reported major progress towards the peace treaty after meeting outside the U.S. capital for four consecutive days in early May. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held three face-to-face meetings in the following weeks.
The two sides say that despite Pashinian’s pledge to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh through the peace treaty, they still disagree on other sticking points.
Tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and “the line of contact” around Karabakh have increased over the last few weeks, with the sides accusing each other of violating the ceasefire on a virtually daily basis. A June 15 skirmish on the Lachin corridor led Azerbaijan to completely block relief supplies to Karabakh through the sole road connecting the disputed region to Armenia. The move aggravated shortages of food, medicine and other essential items in Karabakh.
Mirzoyan brought up the “illegal” blockade and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Karabakh with Blinken during their separate conversation. For his part, Bayramov was reported to tell Blinken that Yerevan is attempting to “obstruct the peace process.”