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US Announces New Nagorno-Karabakh Ceasefire as Fighting Persists

Reuters

   BAKU/WASHINGTON - The United States on Sunday said a new humanitarian
   ceasefire will take effect on Monday in the conflict between Azerbaijan
   and Armenia over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, even as fresh
   fighting erupted between the two sides who blame each other for the
   failure of previous truces.

   The ceasefire is due to take effect at 8 a.m. local time (12 a.m. EDT)
   on Oct. 26, the U.S. State Department and the governments of Azerbaijan
   and Armenia said in a joint statement.

   "Congratulations to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and
   Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who just agreed to adhere to a
   cease fire effective at midnight. Many lives will be saved," U.S.
   President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter.

   The announcement came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held
   separate meetings with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan
   in Washington on Friday.

   "Those meetings were joined by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group,
   formed to mediate the conflict and led by France, Russia and the United
   States, which described them as "intensive discussions" on the
   ceasefire and the beginning of talks about core elements of a
   comprehensive solution.

   The Minsk Group said its co-chairs and the foreign ministers agreed to
   meet again in Geneva on Oct. 29.

   But the eruption of new fighting on Sunday and the collapse of two
   previous ceasefires brokered by Russia raised questions about the
   prospects for this fresh push to end the clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh, a
   part of Azerbaijan populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians.

   The fighting that broke out on Sept. 27 over the disputed territory has
   surged to its worst level since the 1990s, when some 30,000 people were
   killed.

   Local officials in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday accused Azeri forces of
   firing artillery on settlements in the areas of Askeran and Martuni
   during the night. Azerbaijan said its positions had been attacked with
   small arms, mortars, tanks and howitzers.

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