US State Department Cautious to Speak about Karabakh Mediation Efforts

White House Spokesperson John Kirby.

The Nagorno Karabakh conflict was among the topics discussed during the State Department's Daily Press Briefing on Monday, December 21. Spokesperson John Kirby answered questions about the meeting which took place between President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan on December 19, in Bern, Switzerland

The meeting came after days of escalated violence along the Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact. It was mediated by the French, US and Russian co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and was also joined by the Foreign Affairs Ministers of both countries. It was the first such meeting since October 2014.

Kirby commented that the presidents themselves recognized the deterioration of the situation and “expressed concern about civilian casualties caused by the use of heavy weapons.” No progress towards a peaceful solution was reported, but at the presidents’ request, the Minsk Group co-chairs will continue to work on proposals for the reduction of violence. Kirby stated that the Group would be prepared to support another meeting next year, but no plans were mentioned.

A question was posed to Kirby about “a new initiative to locate gun detectors and sensors [along the Line of Contact] so that each time violence takes place, the mediators will be able to conduct an investigation.” The US, Russia, France and Armenia have previously expressed support for this, but Azerbaijan has not.

Kirby refused to comment on whether the US works with Azerbaijan to gain their support for this project. Instead, he discussed the general commitment of the US to the reduction of violence, going on to suggest that “another way to reduce tensions, we believe, is to increase people-to-people contacts.”

When a follow-up question was asked about whether the US calls the Azerbaijani government to support this, he again refused to comment.

Kirby continuously reiterated the commitment of the US, as a Minsk Group co-chair, to a peaceful solution for Nagorno Karabakh. However, because clear-cut answers were not provided, it is difficult to discern from this press briefing which peace initiatives are being supported at all.