Armenia and Azerbaijan on Thursday (May 4th) moved closer to a peace agreement on the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, the object of two wars, but failed to do so despite four days of intense talks under the auspices of the United States.

"The two sides have discussed very difficult issues in recent days and they have made tangible progress towards a lasting peace agreement," US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said at the end of the talks. "I hope they feel, and I believe they do, that an agreement is in sight, within reach," he added, stressing that "the pace of negotiations and the foundations laid" suggest concluding a peace agreement at a later date. "The last kilometre of a marathon is always the hardest. We all know that," he said, pledging continued support from the United States to "cross the finish line."

No details have filtered out about the sticking points or the day-to-day conduct of discussions held away from the press at a conference centre near the federal capital.

In separate but identical statements, the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministries spoke of "progress" while indicating that "positions on key issues remain divergent." "The parties agree to continue discussions," they added.

In his own statement, Antony Blinken said that both sides had "accepted in principle certain terms" and had a "better understanding of each other's positions". He stressed that he had proposed to "ministers to return to their capitals to share with their governments the prospect that with a little more goodwill, flexibility and compromise, an agreement is within reach".

Lachin Corridor

The two Caucasus countries clashed in two wars in the early 1990s and in 2020 for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region mostly populated by Armenians that seceded from Azerbaijan more than three decades ago.

Tensions, already high, redoubled when Baku announced on 23 April that it had installed a first road checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, the only axis linking Armenia to the separatist enclave, already subject to a months-long blockade that has caused shortages and power cuts.

Antony Blinken, who sponsored the talks that began on Monday, was speaking at a "closing session" of the negotiations in the presence of the heads of diplomacy of the two countries, Armenia's Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijan's Dzheyhoun Bairamov.

President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had already spoken of "progress" Wednesday night in a tweet and said "encourage the continuation of dialogue" after a meeting at the White House with the two ministers.

The negotiations focus specifically on "an agreement to normalize relations" between the two countries, rather than a formal peace treaty.

After a short war that saw Azerbaijan retake territory in this region in autumn 2020, Baku and Yerevan signed a ceasefire promoted by Moscow. Since then, Russian peacekeepers have been stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh, but Armenia has been complaining for several months about their ineffectiveness.

With AFP

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