United States urges Azerbaijan to restore free transit through Lachin Corridor

The United States has urged Azerbaijan to restore free transit through Lachin Corridor amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We remain deeply concerned about the continued closure of the Lachin corridor, specifically its closure to commercial, humanitarian, and private vehicles,” United States Department of State Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a press briefing. “The halting of this kind of humanitarian traffic, in our opinion, it worsens the humanitarian situation and it undermines the efforts that have been in place to build confidence in the peace process. And so we urge the Government of Azerbaijan to restore free transit of commercial, humanitarian, and private vehicles through this corridor. We’re also aware that the UN Security Council has a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, and we expect further discussions to take place there as well,” he added.

Asked on the U.S.’s position on that very issue at the UN, Patel said, “I’m not going to get ahead of the meeting…but we have consistently emphasized and reiterated the fact that direct dialogue is essential to resolving this longstanding conflict, and we think that any engagements that ultimately bring peace and stability to the people of South Caucasus would be a good thing and a positive step forward.”