U.S. Congressman voiced concern over the delay in the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“The issue of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a cause of concern to many politicians in Washington, including me,” Christopher Smith told journalists on June 29.

Smith said the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should continue negotiations despite the fact that the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group haven’t yielded progress.

He noted that the U.S. government actively supports the work of the Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

As a co-chairing country of the OSCE Minsk Group, the U.S. repeatedly voiced support for the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which emerged in 1988 after Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The UN Security Council’s four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.

AzerNews