A statement issued by the Minsk Group said that the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on a number of urgent steps to resolve the conflict between them in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, after holding talks in Geneva.

The statement, issued by envoys from Russia, France and the United States, said that the two ministers met in Geneva and agreed not to deliberately target civilians, to start a process to exchange bodies on the battlefield, and to present lists of prisoners and detainees within a week with the aim of exchanging them.

The statement indicated that the two countries will continue to discuss issues "related to possible mechanisms to verify the ceasefire," after 3 previous truces failed to stop the recent fighting over the region.

Field advance

On the ground, Armenia said that the Azerbaijani army continued to bomb residential communities in the Nagorno Karabakh region, as it continued its field advance towards the strategic city of Shushi.

The head of the Karabakh region - which is not recognized internationally - warned that the Azerbaijani army has approached the city of Shushi, the second largest city in the region, and called on citizens to defend their city and repel the attack by the Azeri forces.

For his part, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said that it is impossible to enforce the truce without mechanisms that determine who violates the ceasefire, holding Baku responsible for violating ceasefire agreements 3 times.

On the other hand, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said - in a tweet to him on his Twitter account - that his country's army had made progress in the southern front of the Karabakh region on the Gabriel axis, controlling 9 new villages.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that the Armenian side continued its attacks on various fronts, using all kinds of weapons.

In a statement, the ministry stated that its forces had shot down two Su-25s (Su-25) and destroyed two T-72 tanks and other Armenian equipment, and indicated that their forces had successfully continued their military operations on axes. Agadir, Qubadli and Khujand.

Araghi in Yerevan

On the political level, Abbas Araghchi, Iranian Assistant Foreign Minister and his country's special envoy to the Karabakh crisis, discussed with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakyanian in Yerevan security and military developments between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

A statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry stated that the two sides expressed their concern about the transfer of terrorist and armed elements to the region to participate in the battles, and added that Araghji presented the Armenian side with Iran's proposal to end the conflict, permanently cease fire and settle differences.

For his part, the Armenian Foreign Minister said that his country realizes and understands Iran's concerns, and welcomes Tehran's role in ensuring security and stability in the region.

Demonstrations of the Azerbaijani community in Geneva against the war (Anatolia)

Cluster munitions

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said that Armenian forces either fired internationally banned cluster munitions and long-range missiles on their own, or supplied them to their forces in Karabakh.

It added that it used these weapons in an attack on the city of Barda, west of the Azerbaijani capital Baku, on the 28th of this month, which killed at least 21 civilians and injured 70 others.

She explained that, based on the testimonies of eyewitnesses and photos of the remnants of these weapons, the ammunition that was used was of the type "N-2359" (N-2359) and the "Smerch" missiles (Smerch), which the Armenian army has launchers for a type of high explosive.

The organization added that the use of these weapons in the city center shows a blatant disregard for civil life and international law, and called on both Armenia and Azerbaijan to stop using cluster weapons and to join international treaties that prohibit the use of this type of weapon.