U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Kristina Kvien reiterated Washington’s concern over Azerbaijan’s installation of a checkpoint on the only road connecting Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to Armenia.
Azerbaijan’s authorities on Sunday set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the new road of the Lachin Corridor in violation of the terms of the 2020 ceasefire agreement.
“As the United States said yesterday, we are deeply concerned about Azerbaijan’s decision to set up a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor,” the U.S. diplomat told reporters on April 24 as she visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on the tragedy’s 108th anniversary.
“We find it unhelpful to the peace process. And what we are focusing on now is trying to get the parties to speak together, to come up with the solutions that are mutually agreed, and we will continue to support the peace process to try to move it forward,” Kvien said.
She stressed that the U.S. finds “any use of violence or any provocative act to be unhelpful to the peace process.”
Asked whether the United States is considering sanctions against Azerbaijan as a retraining measure, the ambassador said: “The United States has not levied any sanctions so far on Azerbaijan. And I can’t comment on what we might do in the future.”
