Azerbaijan, Armenia To Resume Talks In Washington 'Soon', State Department Says

Washington is working to schedule the next round of Karabakh talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia 'soon', in a bid to bridge their divides amid increasing border violence, TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports.

"We look forward to hosting another round of talks in Washington soon as the parties continue to pursue a peaceful future in the South Caucasus region," State Department's Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told a Wednesday press briefing when responding to TURAN's questions.

Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia - Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan - were initially expected to visit Washington for peace talks early last week, however it got rescheduled last minute.

"We continue to believe direct dialogue is key to resolving issues and reaching a durable and dignified peace..." Patel went on to add. "...We continue to believe that steps that are going to incite tensions and elevate tensions are certainly unproductive right now as talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan are proceeding in different venues. And so we’ll continue to engage on this and look forward to hosting another round of talks very soon."

When asked about Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov's latest attempts to downplay Washington's mediating efforts, Patel said in general, the U.S. has been "an important partner" in the peace process and if Russia thinks that they can play a constructive role in this, "certainly they are welcome to, but we continue to feel that these talks are progressing, they’re proceeding..."

He went on to elaborate: "The Secretary personally has been engaged on this. I know, Alex, you’ve worked on this issue and followed it very closely and are aware of the number of engagements that have happened both at the Secretary’s level and at the working level, and this is all reflective of the fact that we think direct dialogue is key to resolving this issue and reaching a durable and dignified peace."

Patel concluded: "And we also continue to think that dialogue can’t be replaced in this process."