A new cease-fire aimed at stopping the
fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh appears to be in jeopardy with Armenian forces
and Azerbaijan accusing each other of renewed shelling, according to Radio Free
Europe.
On Monday, officials in Nagorno-Karabakh said Azerbaijani forces were shelling
their positions in northern and southern areas of the Line Of Contact that
divides them.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Armenian forces had shelled its positions in the Goranboy, Tartar, and Agdam regions of Azerbaijan overnight and the Agcabadi region was being shelled on the morning of October 19.
President Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijani
forces had taken control over 13 villages in the Cabrayil region
near the Iranian border. The previous day he announced the capture of the
11th-century Khudaferin bridge over the Aras River between Azerbaijan and Iran.
On October 18, Armenia and Azerbaijan posted identical statements on their respective Foreign Ministry websites when they agreed on the new cease-fire.
The statements said the decision was made
following statements earlier this month from the presidents of France, Russia,
and the United States, representing the co-chair countries of the Minsk Group
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The Minsk Group is a diplomatic initiative aimed at trying to resolve the
conflict, which dates to 1988 in the waning days of the Soviet Union.
US to host Armenian, Azerbaijan Foreign Ministers
The US will host the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers later this week amid raging conflict over a breakaway region, the Politico reported Monday.
On Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will first meet with Jeyhun Bayramov, Baku's top diplomat, before also sitting down with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, according to documents reviewed by the Politico news website.
It is unclear if a trilateral meeting is also being planned. Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan's ambassador to the US, did not rule out a potential three-way meeting when asked by Politico. "We want a substantive conversation," he said.
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