The US government is deeply concerned about reports of fighting on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Monday, calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

“As we have made clear long ago, there can be no military solution to the conflict,” a senior US diplomat said in a statement. “We call for an immediate cessation of hostilities,” he stresses.

Fighting broke out on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border on the night of Monday into Tuesday, and there are reports of military casualties on both sides.

The Armenian Ministry of Defense reported that “On September 13, at 00:05, the armed forces of Azerbaijan launched strikes from heavy artillery and large-caliber weapons on the positions of the Armenian army near the Goris, Sot and Jermuk regions.”

For its part, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan stated that its forces launched attacks in retaliation for the mining by Armenians of areas in Dashkesan, Kalbazar and Lachin. Blaming Yerevan for the clashes, he said that there were casualties among the military on both sides.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been strained since 1991 over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict over its control escalated again in the fall of 2020, when a 44-day war broke out, during which Azerbaijani forces took control of several sectors.

The war ended thanks to a Russian-brokered peace deal, but Baku and Yerevan have occasionally accused each other of violating the border ceasefire.

Source: RES-IPE