- Tensions have been escalating over blocked aid deliveries
- Cross-border shelling has left casualties on both sides
Armenia appealed to the US, Europe and Iran to help defuse a standoff with neighboring Azerbaijan over blocked aid deliveries to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which have raised tensions to their highest point since a 2020 war.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held phone talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, his office said in a statement on Saturday. Pashinyan told Blinken he’s ready for urgent talks with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, according to the statement.
Azerbaijan faces mounting pressure from the US and Europe to reopen the Lachin corridor, a road link connecting Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia that it blocked in December. Humanitarian aid was last delivered along the route on June 15, Armenian officials say. In July, Pashinyan warned of the risk of a new war with Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan denies imposing a blockade, though dozens of trucks from Armenia loaded with aid have been held up at the border for weeks. The blockade has led to shortages of food and essential goods for the territory’s Armenian population, which local officials put at 120,000.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-09/armenia-seeks-mediation-as-azerbaijan-standoff-stokes-war-fears
