US seeks Armenia, Azerbaijan de-escalation as 4 separatists killed

The United States on Wednesday urged Azerbaijan and Armenia to de-escalate in a meeting with their top diplomats, hours after four Armenian separatist fighters died in renewed violence.

The two countries' foreign ministers, on the second of three days of talks opened on Tuesday by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, went to the White House to see Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor.

"I encouraged Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue making progress toward peace, as well as to avoid provocations and de-escalate tensions in order to build confidence," Sullivan wrote on Twitter afterward.

Hours after the talks opened, rebels said the four were killed in the breakaway Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region, where tensions have been flaring over a blockade of the only land corridor connecting to Armenia.

"Iran believes that peace between the two rivals will diminish its geopolitical relevance"
@AliBakeer explains why Iran is sabotaging an Armenia–Azerbaijan peace deal⬇ https://t.co/9O2d5lQu3G

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) December 3, 2022

"We are deeply disturbed by the loss of life in Nagorno-Karabakh and we offer our condolences to the families of all of those who were killed," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

He said that the killings "underscore the need to refrain from hostilities and for a durable and dignified peace."

Patel said the negotiations led by the United States "were constructive, and we continue to build on those discussions today and tomorrow, so there's no change in the schedule."

The talks mark the second such session in as many months led by Blinken, with Russia, long the primary power-broker between the two former Soviet republics, bogged down in its invasion of Ukraine.