Caucasus violence may harm U.S. ties with Russia, Turkey, Iran: expert

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United States should cooperate with Russia in the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, a member of the New York Council on Foreign Relations, Professor Carey Cavanaugh said.

In a memorandum published by the Center for Preventive Action, the expert warned that a new outburst of violence in the South Caucasus could jeopardize the U.S. ties with Russia, Turkey and Iran, TASS reports.

"President Trump has already announced its intention to cooperate with Russia. Joint actions with regard to the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict could be a starting point for further efforts of the two countries in other areas," a former U.S. Special Negotiator for Eurasian Conflicts noted. According to him, it would be wrong to believe that the Minsk process has not yielded any results results: "The fact that in recent years there has not been a large-scale conflict speaks for itself."

The former co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group in 1999-2001 is sure of the need to put into practice the previously agreed confidence-building and security measures in the region, in particular to increase the number of OSCE observers, and to establish an independent mechanism to investigate incidents on the contact line, which will help to reduce the number of violations of the ceasefire. "The settlement of the conflict is in everybody’s interest," said Cavanaugh.