By Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said hard work remains to reach a final agreement to end the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, as talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan’s foreign ministers hosted by Washington ended on Thursday.
Blinken, who posed for a photograph with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov at the conclusion of talks mediated by U.S. officials for three days, told reporters that some of the most difficult issues remained unresolved, without detailing what those were.
Since heavy fighting ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire in 2020, the two sides have been discussing a peace deal that would include agreement on borders, settle differences over the enclave, and unfreeze relations.
Blinken said there was progress in the talks, including “agreement on some additional articles as well as deepening understanding of the positions on other outstanding issues, as well as a recognition that there remains hard work to be done to try to reach a final agreement,” Blinken said.
Blinken said the talks were conducted with “candor, openness and directness,” and he hoped for further progress in a meeting between the two countries’ leaders and the European Union expected to take place in coming weeks.
The two foreign ministers did not speak to the media.
Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, has been a source of conflict between the two Caucasus neighbors since the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and between ethnic Armenians and Turkic Azeris for well over a century.
Bayramov last week said Azerbaijan would not accept a demand from Armenia to provide special security guarantees for some 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in the enclave, dashing hopes of a breakthrough.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Daphne Psaledakis and Rami Ayyub; Editing by Leslie Adler and Daniel Wallis)
