The French daily Le Figaro reported on Wednesday that the draft resolution which Paris is “preparing to submit” to the council is designed to help Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population left “on the verge of starvation.” It gave few other details.
The French Embassy in Yerevan did not confirm or refute the report. It pointed to French President Emmanuel Macron’s interview with another French publication, Le Point, published earlier on Wednesday. Macron said that his government will keep pressing for the reopening of the Lachin corridor and the resumption of urgent relief supplies to Karabakh.
The Security Council discussed the worsening humanitarian crisis in Karabakh last week during an emergency meeting initiated by Armenia. Although most of its members, notably the United States, France and Russia, urged the lifting of the Azerbaijani blockade, the Council stopped short of adopting a relevant resolution or statement.
The U.S. on Wednesday denied claims that it is trying to prevent the key UN body from condemning the Azerbaijani blockade. “We have not seen a draft resolution,” the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan told the Armenpress news agency.
France, which is home to a sizable Armenian community, has been the most vocal international critic of the eight-month Azerbaijani blockade. Baku has repeatedly accused Macron and other French officials of siding with Armenia in the Karabakh conflict.
CCAF, a coalition of leading Armenian Diaspora organizations in France, announced on Thursday that the municipal administrations of Paris and several other French cities and districts have decided to send an aid convoy to Karabakh. It said their mayors, including Anne Hidalgo of Paris, will personally escort on August 30 ten trucks loaded with basic necessities to an Armenian border checkpoint adjacent to the starting point of the Lachin corridor and try to ensure their passage to Karabakh.