WASHINGTON (RFE/RL) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken phoned Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday, January 23, to call for an immediate end to Azerbaijan’s six-week blockade of the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the outside world.
“I urged President Aliyev to immediately restore commercial traffic on the Lachin corridor,” Blinken tweeted after the call.
“Each day it remains blocked risks a humanitarian crisis and undermines the steps that Armenia and Azerbaijan have taken towards peace,” he said. “The US is committed to supporting these efforts.”
A separate statement released by the US State Department said Blinken also “encouraged President Aliyev to redouble efforts in bilateral peace discussions with Armenia.”
Blinken spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan by phone on January 18. He was reported to express “deep concern for the worsening humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The United States has repeatedly called for the lifting of the blockade. Azerbaijan has also faced similar calls by the European Union and Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov raised the issue with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in a January 17 phone call.