US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged a lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan as he brought their top diplomats together for the first time since deadly border disputes.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov sat somberly in front of the United Nations General Assembly in a New York hotel across from Blinken.
Blinken said he was “encouraged” that there had been no violence for several days.
“A strong, sustained diplomatic engagement is the best path for everyone,” Blinken said.
“There is a path to a lasting peace that settles differences,” he said.
The National Security Council in Armenia revised the death toll in the fighting from 136 to 207 last week, bringing the total death toll on both sides to 286.
Last week’s flare-up was the worst fight since the 2020 war and has jeopardized the incipient peace process between the nemesis.
The new Armenian toll included two civilians, the Security Council said.
“Two civilians are missing, 293 soldiers and three civilians were wounded and 20 soldiers were captured,” she added.
Baku has reported 79 deaths among its military.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed Baku for “illegal” attacks on Armenia during a visit to Yerevan on Sunday and condemned an “assault on the country’s sovereignty”.
Washington’s ties are deepening with Yerevan, whose traditional ally Moscow is distracted with its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia maintains close ties with both Baku and Yerevan. It is obliged to intervene when Armenia is attacked under a security pact, but has not rushed to help despite an appeal from Yerevan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars — in the 1990s and 2020 — over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, an Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan.
A six-week war in 2020 claimed the lives of more than 6,500 soldiers from both sides and ended in a Russian-brokered ceasefire.
Under the deal, Armenia ceded parts of territory it had controlled for decades, and Moscow dispatched about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to oversee the fragile truce.
