As border clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces left more than 200 dead this week, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, visiting Armenia, accused Baku on Sunday (September 18) of being responsible for the violence. .

"We strongly condemn these attacks, on behalf of the (American) Congress, which threaten the prospect of a much-needed peace agreement," Nancy Pelosi said at a press conference in Yerevan, the Armenian capital.

"Armenia has a special importance for us because of the emphasis that has been placed on the security aspect after the illegal and deadly attacks by Azerbaijan on Armenian territory," she added.

These clashes broke out on Tuesday, September 13 and ended with international mediation on Thursday night.

Both sides accuse each other of initiating the fighting.

A ceasefire thanks to American mediation

Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Alen Simonian, for his part thanked the United States during his joint press conference with Nancy Pelosi, affirming that the violence was able to end thanks to American mediation, after the failure of a attempted truce under Russian mediation.

“We are grateful to the United States for the agreement on a fragile ceasefire obtained thanks to their mediation,” said Alen Simonian.

This violence is an unprecedented escalation since 2020 and threatens to torpedo a fragile peace process between these two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus.  

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In 2020 and the 1990s, the two countries clashed in two wars to control the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave populated by Armenians but located in Azerbaijan.

Nancy Pelosi, who arrived on Saturday, is in Armenia for a three-day visit.

She is the highest American official to visit Yerevan since the independence of this small Caucasian country in 1991, which has a large diaspora in the United States.

This visit comes at a time when the region, which is strategic for the transport of hydrocarbons from the Caspian Sea, is plagued by friction between the influence of Turkey, a support for Azerbaijan, and that of Russia, a traditional ally of the Armenia where it has a military base.

With AFP

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