Potential for large-scale hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh will remain in 2017, reads the Statement for the Record of Director of US National Intelligence, Daniel Coats.

“Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh flared in April 2016, and both sides’ unwillingness to compromise and mounting domestic pressures suggest that the potential for large-scale hostilities will remain in 2017. In Azerbaijan, ongoing economic difficulties are likely to challenge the regime and increase its tendency to repress dissent to maintain power while it continues to try to balance relations with Russia, Iran, and the West,” the statement says.