U.S. Congress to host discussion on Karabakh conflict settlement

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives will in January, 2016 hold a closed-door discussion on the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Communications Director at the Armenian National Committee of America told the Voice of America.

According to Elizabeth S. Chouldjian, the OSCE Minsk Group U.S. Co-chair James Warlick is also invited to the discussion.

U.S. Representative, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ed Royce announced on December 9 a Karabakh congressional briefing to address Azerbaijan's escalating aggression on the contact line. The special briefing comes as a follow up to the October 26 Congressional letter addressed to Ambassador Warlick, initiated by Chairman Royce and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY) and cosigned by over 80 House colleagues, outlining three concrete steps to address escalating Karabakh violence, including the removal of snipers from the border, an increase in OSCE monitors and deployment of a gunfire direction finders.

Earlier, Royce and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY) of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee are asking their Congressional colleagues to join a bipartisan call for renewed U.S. leadership in keeping the peace along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact.

Senior Members of the U.S. House Armed Services, Appropriations and Intelligence committees joined Royce and Engel and over 80 of their colleagues in calling upon the Obama Administration to support the implementation of concrete, pro-peace measures to de-escalate aggression along the borders between Armenia, Artsakh, and Azerbaijan.

Later on, the U.S. State Department officially welcomed proposals to check Azerbaijan's escalating aggression.