WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo answered a question at a press conference in the State Department briefing room on October 21 as to what he hoped to accomplish on October 23 from meeting with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. He said that all countries should halt providing weapons and support to the sides in this conflict and the fighting should also cease. The transcription of the relevant portion of the conference follows the video excerpt.
QUESTION: Hi. On Armenia and Azerbaijan, what would you – what do you hope to achieve from your meetings on Friday with the foreign ministers with – from Armenia and Azerbaijan? Will the United States broker another ceasefire? And separately, if I may, on Taiwan and China. …
SECRETARY POMPEO: … Your first question was about what I hope to accomplish when I meet with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia on Friday. You referred to will we broker another ceasefire, suggesting that the previous commitments to ceasefire didn’t work. It’s a complicated situation on the ground. It’s a complicated diplomatic situation. And our view remains, as does the view of nearly every European country, that the right path forward is to cease the conflict, tell them to de-escalate, that every country should stay out, provide no fuel for this conflict, no weapons systems, no support, and it is at that point that a diplomatic solution that would be acceptable to all can potentially be achieved. That’s what I – that’s what I’ll talk to them about on Friday and I’m anxious to hear from them what they’re seeing on the ground and how we might get closer to what it is we think is not only in the United States’ best interest, but in each of their countries’ best interest as well.
See Pompeo’s prior statements on the current conflict on the Mirror‘s website here and here.
