US House overwhelmingly passes amendment by Congresswoman Judy Chu supporting the deployment of gunfire locators, the addition of observers, and the non-deployment of snipers, heavy arms, and new weaponry along the Artsakh line-of-contact, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) tweeted. 

The text of the Chu Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 reads as follows:

It is the sense of Congress that United States interests in the stability of the Caucasus region and the continuation of the Nagorno Karabakh cease-fire will be advanced by an agreement among regional stakeholders on:

1) The non-deployment of snipers, heavy arms, and new weaponry along the line-of-contact;

2) The deployment of gun-fire locator systems on the line-of-contact; and

3) An increase in the number of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe observers along the line-of-contact.

The Royce-Engel initiative, first proposed in Fall 2015, received the support of over 100 U.S. House members through a series of Congressional calls to the U.S. Administration and the OSCE to take concrete action to ensure Artsakh peace as Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group mediated negotiations continue. The ANCA has launched multiple nationwide grassroots campaigns in support of the initiative, which has gotten support from the U.S. State Department and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, in addition to the Republics of Artsakh and Armenia. Azerbaijan remains the only obstacle to their practical implementation.

BREAKING: US House overwhelmingly passes the @RepJudyChu Amendment, a common-sense @ANCA_DC-backed measure to strengthen the #Artsakh cease-fire by:

1) Withdrawing snipers, heavy arms, new weapons
2) Adding @OSCE observers, and
3) Deploy gunfire locators at the line-of-contact pic.twitter.com/2f5PemGLQ3

— ANCA (@ANCA_DC) 11 июля 2019 г.