The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on the phone with Azeri President İlham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan separately on Monday.
U.S. top diplomat’s holding phone calls with both leaders on the same day is “noteworthy,” according to Azeri political scientist Turan Rzayev.
Washington is aiming to provide Azeri gas for Europe and to pull Armenia out of Russia’s orbit to integrate it with the West, Rzayev told Jam News on Tuesday.
Blinken discussed “Azerbaijan and Armenia’s historic opportunity to achieve peace in the region,” reiterating Washington’s offer of assistance in helping to facilitate the opening of regional transportation and communication linkages, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in two separate statements released after the phone conversations on Monday.
Encouraging continued bilateral dialogue between the two countries that have fought a war over disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in late 2020, Blinken also reaffirmed that the United States
“stands ready to engage bilaterally and with likeminded partners to help Armenia and Azerbaijan find a long-term comprehensive peace,” Price said.
Urging Aliyev to release all remaining Armenian detainees, Blinken also praised Pashinyan for the bilateral efforts have been made with Turkey to normalise relations, Price said.
The United States is currently interested in normalising ties between Yerevan and Ankara, “in the context of providing Europe with energy from Azerbaijan,” according to Rzayev. “Washington understands that Azerbaijan is Ankara’s red line,” the analyst said.
Now the United States is trying to pull Armenia out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it with the West, and for this reason, “the normalisation of relations between Yerevan and Ankara is of utmost importance,” he said.
Turkish and Armenian officials held four rounds of exploratory talks since January, aimed at normalising diplomatic relations, frozen for almost three decades, amid Armenia’s conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia handed back territories in the region to Azerbaijan as part of a truce agreement signed by the warring sides in November 2020, after six-weeks of clashes. Turkey sided with Azerbaijan in the conflict.