Civilnet
By Ani Avetisyan
A recent Politico report quoted US lawmakers as saying that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had told them earlier in October that Azerbaijan could invade Armenia in the coming weeks. The US State Department, however, has denied those reports, calling them "inaccurate".
Following Azerbaijan’s attack on Nagorno-Karabakh and the ethnic cleansing of the region, the focus has turned on Azerbaijan’s possible aggression against Armenia’s territories. Baku watns to connect mainland Azerbaijan with its exclave of Nakhichevan through a “corridor” passing through Armenia’s southern Syunik region.
The target of the Azerbaijani attack, Blinken reportedly said, would be the southern Syunik region of Armenia.
According to Politico, Blinken also claimed that the US was trying to hold Azerbaijan responsible and that it did not plan to renew the longstanding waiver that allows the “US to provide military assistance to Baku." The US State Department declined to comment to Politico on the alleged conversation, only saying it supported Armenia's sovereignty.
Two days after Politico’s report, the Armenian state news agency Armenpress received a comment from the State Department denying the information in the article.
"The reporting in this article is inaccurate and in no way reflects what Secretary Blinken told lawmakers," US State Department spokesperson Mattew Miller said. He also said that the United States "strongly supports" Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Four people told me that @SecBlinken had an October 3 call with a group of lawmakers, and two of those four said that Blinken said State was tracking the possibility that Azerbaijan would invade in the coming weeks.
— Eric Bazail-Eimil (@ebazaileimil) October 15, 2023
Whether that assessment has changed is another story. https://t.co/auZ7BIv8bI
Congressman Frank Pallone appeared to confirm the reports in a tweet, saying that "Aliyev is moving forward with his goal to take southern Armenia" and that he had urged Blinken to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan.
While US congressmen and the EU Parliament called on the respective authorities to sanction Azerbaijan, the West had made it clear that it was not considering punishing Azerbaijan for its military attack and the forced displacement of the Armenian population of Karabakh.
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