TODAY.AZ / Politics

U.S. National Intelligence: Potential remains for large-scale hostilities between Azerbaijan, Armenia

12 May 2017 [13:18] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews


By Rashid Shirinov

Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh flared up in April 2016, and both sides’ unwillingness to compromise and mounting domestic pressures suggest that the potential for large-scale hostilities will remain in 2017, stated Daniel Coats, the Director of U.S. National Intelligence.

Azerbaijan will continue to try to balance relations with Russia, Iran, and the West, reads Coats’s report entitled “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.”

Earlier, the writer and analyst on the Caucasus, Russia and the Black Sea region and a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Thomas De Waal noted that 2016 was a very dangerous year for settlement of the Karabakh problem and this year can be more dangerous in terms of engaging new armaments.

The expert also noted that is necessary to review the agreements reached after the April fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops in 2016 in order to prevent resumption of the conflict.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/161057.html

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