US State Department repeats call for Azerbaijan to seek peace with Armenia

YEREVAN, December 6. /ARKA/. The United States is not going to drop all contacts with Azerbaijan, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

‘We never said that we’re not going to continue to engage with Azerbaijan. That would be against our interests as the United States of America,’ Miller told a press briefing on Tuesday ahead of Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien’s planned travel to Azerbaijan.

‘We think it would be against the interests of peace and security in the region for us to just drop all of our diplomatic engagements with Azerbaijan, ‘Miller added.

‘We continue to engage directly with both Azerbaijan and Armenia to make clear – for example, in the case of Azerbaijan – where we have concerns. We’ve been concerned with the recent trend of detaining journalists,’ Miller said.

According to him, the United States continues to urge Azerbaijan to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all, ‘something that I’ve spoken to from this podium in the past. ‘And we also continue to engage with Azerbaijan to urge it to seek a durable peace with Armenia, and that’s something that will continue to be the focus of our diplomatic engagement,’ Miller said.-0-