Matthew Miller: US urges Azerbaijan to seek durable peace with Armenia

We continue to engage with Azerbaijan to urge them to seek a durable peace with Armenia, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing on Tuesday.

Miller noted that Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien’s upcoming trip to Azerbaijan does not mean a departure from the newly announced policy that, as O’Brien said earlier in November ‘nothing will be normal with Azerbaijan after the events of September 19 until we see progress on the peace track’.

“No, not at all. We never said that we’re not going to continue to engage with Azerbaijan. That would be against our interests as the United States of America. We think it would be against the interests of peace and security in the region for us to just drop all of our diplomatic engagements with Azerbaijan,” Miller said.

“We continue to engage directly with both Azerbaijan and Armenia to make clear – for example, in the case of Azerbaijan – where we have concerns. We’ve been concerned with the recent trend of detaining journalists.

We continue to urge them to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all, something that I’ve spoken to from this podium in the past. And we also continue to engage with them to urge them to seek a durable peace with Armenia, and that’s something that will continue to be the focus of our diplomatic engagements,” he added.