U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on August 5 to call for dialogue in the conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Blinken spoke by phone separately to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
"Secretary Blinken assured Prime Minister Pashinian that the United States is watching the situation in and around Nagorno-Karabakh closely," Price said in a statement on the call with the Armenian premier.
In his conversations with the two leaders, Blinken "urged direct dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve issues related to, or resulting from, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Price said.
European Council President Charles Michel also spoke by phone with Aliyev on August 5 and expressed his concern about rising tensions in the region.
Michel stressed that the European Union will continue its efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability in the region in accordance with the Brussels peace agenda, the president’s press service said.
Aliyev told Michel that “the entire responsibility for the tension that occurred rests with Armenia."
Aliyev also said that Armenia has not withdrawn its troops from the Karabakh region as agreed in the November 10, 2020, truce brokered by Moscow that brought a halt to a six-week war in which more than 6,500 people died.
In the aftermath of the war, Armenia ceded swaths of territory it had controlled for decades to Azerbaijan, and Russia deployed some 2,000 peacekeepers to oversee a truce.
Renewed fighting this week left three people dead, with each side accusing the other of violating the cease-fire.
Baku said it had lost a soldier and the Karabakh army said two of its troops had been killed in the recent clashes.
Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been under ethnic Armenian control for nearly three decades prior to the war in 2020, is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.