A senior US official confirmed that US President Donald Trump will meet with Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s leaders for peace talks at the White House.
The official told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday that a possible framework for a peace agreement might be revealed at the meeting on Friday in Washington, DC.
No announcement of a resolution to the decades-old conflict was made after the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan met last month in Abu Dhabi for peace talks.
Since Nagorno-Karabakh split away from Armenia in the late 1980s, the two South Caucasus nations have been at odds with one another.
Azerbaijan and Armenia claimed the area in 1917 after the Russian Empire fell, and there was a predominately ethnic Armenian population there.
In September 2023, Azerbaijan recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh, sending almost all of Armenia’s 100 000 Armenians to Armenia.
In a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Armenia claimed that Azerbaijan had “wiped out all traces” of the ethnic Armenian presence in the disputed territory.
The case is related to the Nagorno-Karabakh war of 2020, which resulted in the deaths of more than 6,600 people. It is one of three full-fledged wars the two nations have waged in the region.
The top court of the UN has mandated that Azerbaijan grant ethnic Armenians who have fled Nagorno-Karabakh a visa to return. Despite their national or ethnic origin, Azerbaijan claims to have not forced ethnic Armenians, who are primarily Christian, to leave the Karabakh region. It also claims that it is committed to ensuring all residents’ safety and security.
Azerbaijan, whose majority of its inhabitants are Muslims, also attributes its historical significance to the region, accusing Armenians of evicting Azeris from their homes in the 1990s.
After the two nations finalized a draft peace deal in March, the two nations convened in Abu Dhabi last month to discuss the situation.
No more specific steps were provided in the talks’ final statement, but the two leaders “agreed to continue bilateral negotiations and confidence-building measures between the two countries.”
Source: Aljazeera
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