The United States supports the Minsk Group process and co-chairs’ efforts, Deputy Spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State Mark Toner said during a briefing on Monday.
Washington supports the efforts to mediate “a fair and just resolution to Nagorno-Karabakh, that is based on principles of international law, the UN Charter ,Helsinki Final Act, particularly non-use of force, territorial integrity and self-determination”, he added.
“We expressed our concern about the escalating violence, but it is up to leaders to find political will to reach peace, ceasefire and achieve lasting peace to this ongoing conflict,” Toner said.
He assured that the United States will urge both sides to return to the negotiations “and then we will hopefully get resolution”.
Mark Toner stressed that it is not for him to speak “what motivations may be behind recent escalation" and reiterated that both sides have to de-escalate the situation.”
The spokesperson added that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry discussed Karabakh via phone and encouraged the parties to come back to talks under the auspices of OSCE.
“We condemned in the strongest terms violence and a very high number of casualties, including civilians which is deplorable. We urge both sides to stop violence immediately and to avoid any kind of further escalation,” he added.
