The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has confirmed she will visit Armenia this weekend after the worst fighting in two years between Armenia and Azerbaijan left more than 200 dead.
Pelosi confirmed the trip after the Armenian Defense Ministry said a truce with Azerbaijan appeared to be holding.
Speaking to reporters in Berlin, she said she would travel on September 17 with a delegation that includes Representative Jackie Speier (Democrat-California), who is of Armenian descent.
"Tomorrow we are visiting Armenia because we received an invitation from the Armenians a long time ago. I wouldn't want to discuss the details of the visit, because when we travel, we don't want to be targeted, so I wouldn't want to say anything in advance," Pelosi said.
Pelosi said the trip was planned before the recent escalation of violence on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The Armenian Defense Ministry earlier on September 16 said the "situation was unchanged" at the border following a deadly flare-up in fighting linked to a decades-old dispute between the Caucasus neighbors over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
"As of [9 a.m.] on September 16, no change in the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border has been recorded, said the ministry's press secretary, Aram Torosian.
The clashes that had erupted on September 13 -- the worst since the two sides fought a war in 2020 -- ended "thanks to the international involvement" overnight on September 15, Armenia's Security Council said, after earlier failed attempts by Russia to broker a truce.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan, telling him the conflict had stabilized.
"Border conflicts happen. Unfortunately, they have been associated with numerous casualties on both sides, but the main thing is that we have managed to stabilize the situation and shift it to a peaceful course," Aliyev said.
Putin said it was good that the conflict had de-escalated, but that the situation was still tense.
SEE ALSO: Thousands Of Armenian Civilians Flee Fighting Close To Border With AzerbaijanArmenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on September 16 announced an updated death toll from this week's clashes with Azerbaijan, saying the number of the dead had risen from 105 to at least 135.
"For the moment, the number of dead is 135," Pashinian told a cabinet meeting.
"Unfortunately it is not the final figure. There are also many wounded."
Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said on September 15 that a total of 71 of its servicemen had been killed during clashes this week on the border with Armenia, updating a previous death toll of 50.
The United States and the United Nations on September 15 welcomed the cease-fire.
"We welcome the cessation of hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia and will continue to work with the parties to seek to cement it," tweeted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In a later tweet, Blinken said that he discussed the situation in a phone call with Pashinian. "I offered my condolences for the loss of life in the recent fighting," Blinken wrote.
Both sides have blamed each other for starting the recent hostilities, with Armenia accusing Azerbaijan of an unprovoked attack that reached into Armenian territory and Baku saying it was responding to shelling by Armenian forces.
Before the cease-fire was announced, Pashinian said Azerbaijani forces had struck and seized several Armenian settlements along their shared border and in territory beyond Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku said it was responding to "provocations" by the Armenian side.
Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for years. Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people.
SEE ALSO: Thousands Call For Armenian Prime Minister's OusterThe two sides fought another war that lasted six weeks in late 2020 and killed an estimated 6,000 people before a Russia-brokered cease-fire, resulting in Armenia losing control over parts of the region and seven adjacent districts.
Under the cease-fire Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers. Russia moved quickly to negotiate an end to the latest hostilities, but a renewal of the cease-fire has failed to hold.