The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hopes that the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will maintain the ceasefire. This was stated by Martin Schuepp, ICRC Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, at a briefing in Geneva, TASS reports.

We hope that the humanitarian agreement on the ceasefire will be observed, and that it will bring significant relief to those who have suffered, he said.

The ICRC is ready to facilitate the transfer of the bodies of those killed in the fighting to the parties, as well as the release of those captured, Schuepp continued. However, the parties must agree on the format. We continue the discussions with them, making proposals, the ICRC regional director explained.

According to him, the parties must reach an agreement on actions and logistics, and such agreements must be implemented. In addition, the safety of the ICRC teams must be guaranteed for such an operation to take place, Schuepp stressed.

The representative of the Red Cross noted that his organization is not involved in political negotiations. Our role is exclusively humanitarian, as a neutral mediator, he concluded.

Martin Schuepp said that the ICRC estimates that tens of thousands of people in the region will need assistance in the coming months. To this end, we have made an urgent call for an additional 9.2 million Swiss francs (more than US$10 million at the current exchange rate) for the ICRC's humanitarian operations. We have already started to receive generous donations from the countries, and we are deeply grateful to them for that assistance, the ICRC regional director concluded.